PHNOM PENH -- They don't have to worry as much as before about getting shot on the street or having grenades thrown at their houses. But Cambodia's journalists still labor under a government that doesn't like dissent. And the country still has to put up with journalists who create problems for themselves by being unprofessional and corrupt.
Since 1991-93, when U.N. peacekeepers freed Cambodia's press from communist-style controls, almost all newspapers have been financed by members of the parties of arch rivals Hun Sen, Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy. For many journalists, that meant their job was to harangue political rivals. Some paid for it; up to 1997, half a dozen journalists were killed in circumstances that suggested the involvement of the authorities. But through a coup in 1997 and victory in the July 1998 election, Prime Minister Hun Sen has finally quieted down Ranariddh, now the National Assembly president. And Sam Rainsy, the opposition leader, has toned down his antigovernment criticism a bit.
With politics less volatile, journalists are breathing a little easier, although many still exercise considerable self-censorship. "Now there is only suppression by suspending and closing down newspapers. Before, they killed you," said Tom Somalay, a reporter for the pro-Sam Rainsy newspaper Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience).