1. Internet Freedom in Cambodia
By
Moses Ngeth
Communication Coordinator
Of
Community Legal Education Center (CLEC)

2. Content
• History of Internet Using
• New age of Social Networking and Citizen
Journalist
• Internet Censorship
• Cyber-Crime Law

3. Briefing of Internet Usage in Cambodia
• Started in May 1997: via a 64 kbps satellite link to Singapore
• Internet users
– 500,000 in 2011 (World State Report)
– 178,142 in 2010; 74,082 in 2009; 70,495 in 2008 (World Bank)
• ISP: 27 companies in 2010
• Mobile Operator: 9 companies in 2011
• Mobile Subscriber: estimation 13 millions = 87% of population in 2012
• Facebook Users: 551,300 users = 3.74% of population

4. New Age of Social Network & Citizen
Journalist
• Facebook users:
551300
– Penetration of
population: 3.74%
– Penetration of
online population:
112.17%
– grew by more
than 102420 in the
last 6 months

5. New Age of Social Network & Citizen
Journalist (Cont.)
• They first went to facebook for fun but now
they are on facebook for news gathering,
reporting, group talking/sharing…
• Some journalist roles can be seen in some
young facebook users. They share about:
– Road accident
– Flood in town
– Human Rights abuse
– Social security

6. New Age of Social Network & Citizen
Journalist (Cont.)

7. New Age of Social Network & Citizen
Journalist (Cont.)

8. New Age of Social Network & Citizen
Journalist (Cont.)

9. New Age of Social Network & Citizen
Journalist (Cont.)

10. Internet Censorship
• Cases of Censorship:
- February 2009, UK-based corruption watchdog the
Global Witness website had blocked after released 70-
page “Country for Sale” report on January 5th.
- December 2010, ISPs were ordered to block
KI-Meida and Khmerization news blog sites
(Popular anti-government blogs)
- December, 17th 2012: UN World Food
Program staff was charged of incitement after he
shared an article with two co-workers. (Link to KI-
Media)

11. Cyber-Crime Law
Why? Reason 1 (Spreading False Information)
• “We need to prevent any ill-willed people or bad mood
people from spreading false information, groundless
information that could tend to mislead the public and affect
national security or our society. We need to control this,”
Press and Quick Reaction Unit spokesman Ek Tha said.
• “For instance, there was a mobile phone message saying
that there was a violent clash near the Cambodia-Japan
Friendship Bridge between supporters of the [Cambodian
People’s Party] and the [Sam Rainsy Party] yesterday
evening, but it was totally false,” the deputy prime minister
was quoted as saying.
“[P]eople use modern technology to spread false
information, so we need a law to regulate them.”

12. ANZ customers received fail
information

13. Many e-mail users received cheating
messages.

14. Cyber-Crime Law
Why? Reason 2 (Hacker Attack)
UN website in Cambodia was hacked

15. National Police website was hacked

16. Ministry of Interior was hacked

17. ASEAN website was hacked.
www.asean2012.mfa.gov.kh

18. ASEAN website was hacked.
www.asean2012.mfa.gov.kh

19. Thank you