In a strongman state, Trump order against US aid extinguishes flickers of freedom

PHNOM PENH – His father was marched to a forest and killed, like so many victims of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Before he was led away, the father told his young son Uon Chhin to stand up and speak the truth, even if it might compromise his liberty.

Decades later, Mr Uon Chhin became a journalist during the muckraking heyday of the free press in Cambodia.

But in 2017, he and a colleague at Radio Free Asia were charged with espionage. Their nine-month imprisonment presaged an evisceration of human rights in Cambodia by Mr Hun Sen, the long-time leader who refashioned a young democracy into a dictatorial dynasty.

Now, the slashing of US foreign aid and President Donald Trump’s executive order in March to

gut US-funded news media

like Radio Free Asia and Voice of America are erasing what little space for free speech remains in Cambodia. Thirty projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development have been cancelled, including those supporting civil society and an independent media.

It is a tectonic shift in this South-east Asian nation, which was once a laboratory for internationally mandated democracy-building in the post-Khmer Rouge era, then later devolved into a strongman state.

And it underscores the rise of another power, China, eager to influence a small country desperate for cash and for a model for developing its fast-growing economy.

Like China, Mr Hun Sen celebrated Mr Trump’s executive order targeting Radio Free Asia and Voice of America. Silencing these US-funded news organisations, he said, would be a “a major contribution to eliminating fake news, disinformation, lies, distortions, incitement and chaos around the world”.

Two years ago, Mr Hun Sen nominally handed over power to his oldest son, Mr Hun Manet. Educated at the US Military Academy at West Point, Mr Hun Manet has not changed course. (The transfer of power from father to son has been replicated for the positions of defence minister, chief of the navy and interior minister.)

Today, almost every independent media outlet in Cambodia has been shuttered, although some, like Radio Free Asia, still operate from outside the country. Political parties have been dissolved by a pliant judiciary.

Hundreds of Cambodians who decried the country’s autocratic turn are in prison or in exile. In January, a veteran opposition politician was

assassinated on the streets of Bangkok,

a hit that the Thai police linked to an adviser to Mr Hun Sen.

“In Cambodia, RFA is the last independent media outlet operating in Khmer,” said Ms Bay Fang, the broadcaster’s president, referring to the local language service, which has eight million Facebook followers. “If we close down, the ruling party gets to completely control the narrative. It’s no wonder that Hun Sen celebrated the news of RFA’s possible demise.”

After his release from prison, Mr Uon Chhin eventually found work at a news collective formed by outcasts of other shuttered media outlets. Half of the group’s annual budget of US$810,000 (S$1.1 million) came from US aid.

The collective, called CamboJA, has enough money to operate only until June. It has stopped providing drinking water at the office to save US$30 a month.

“My colleagues and I, we know that something like this happens in Cambodia all the time, but we never expected it to happen from America,” Mr Uon Chhin said. “It’s like Cambodia and America have traded places.”

There are Cambodian news outlets that make money. They eschew criticism of the Hun family and its cronies, including individuals who have been sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury for alleged corruption and human rights abuses.

The most popular is called Fresh News, and it publishes online in Khmer, English and Chinese. Last year, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, which is led by the Huns, ordered all officials to use the Fresh News messaging service, CoolApp, rather than foreign options like WhatsApp or Signal.

“Cambodia has complete freedom, more than some countries in the region,” said Mr Lim Cheavutha, founder and CEO of Fresh News, which is the ruling party’s preferred mouthpiece for disseminating information.

As the United States and other Western nations, such as Sweden, withdraw funding for independent media and democratic institutions, China has stepped in with money that it says is not tied to pesky human rights concerns.

Last summer, Ms Heng Sreylin, 25, travelled with other Cambodian journalists and influencers on an all-expenses paid junket to north-east China. She marvelled at the modern buildings and clean streets. She produced 20 tourism and culture stories from her trip.

“We don’t have freedom of expression in Cambodia,” said Ms Heng Sreylin, who works for a small outlet that focuses on things like travel stories and celebrity news. “I do stories that don’t bring problems to me. I don’t want to touch politics.”

Mr Ith Sothoeuth has lost US funding for his new journalistic start-up, an online news site. His previous employer, Voice of Democracy, was forced off the airwaves in 2023. He doesn’t know how he will continue without US support, and he isn’t sure he will avoid prison. But, he said, he will continue standing up for free expression.

“If you go with the flow, you are a dead fish,” he said. “If you fight the current, it means you are alive.” NYTIMES