Monday, August 10, 2009
By Kimberly Curtis
Foreign Policy Blog

Cambodia has never been known as a haven for free speech and political dissent, but several recent developments in the country have observers even more concerned about the shrinking space for political expression.

Last week, a Cambodian court found an outspoken opposition MP guilty of defamation for filing her own defamation suit against Prime Minister Hun Sen. The case has been a high profile one for months in the Southeast Asian country and has polarized the public, but observers claim that the conviction of Mu Sochua is proof of a growing crackdown on dissent by the Cambodian government.

The case arose out of a speech Sen made in April in Kampot province, the province that Sochua represents in parliament and one of the provinces that has seen forcible evictions by the army for their land. Although Sochua was not mentioned by name, comments that Sen made deriding and insulting the province’s parliamentary representation were clearly aimed at her. Sochua responded by doing the unthinkable - she filed a defamation suit against the Prime Minister for his comments. The case was immediately rejected by the courts, but Sen fired back by filing his own defamation suit against Sochua for filing against him. The courts upheld his suit and last Tuesday, handed down a ruling in Sen’s favor against Sochua and fined her $4000.