The Khmer Times appeared as an online edition in early 2014. Over the course of a few months, it switched to a weekly newspaper. In 2015, it became a daily newspaper.
Media assets
Publishing: Khmer Times
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Private (CaPr)
Ownership and governance
The Khmer Times is owned by Mohan Tirugmanasam Bandam, a Malaysian businessman, and one of his daughters, Ashwini Rajkumari Mohan. Mohan is known to be close to the Cambodian government, particularly the family of the former Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Source of funding and budget
The newspaper’s owner claims that the publication is funded solely through commercial sources, mainly advertising. However, the newspaper has been caught in a series of scandals indicating that the owner of the publication, close to the government, has also accessed state money to fund the Times.
Editorial independence
The publisher of The Khmer Times is known to be close to the authorities and to hold an editorial line favorable to the government. In recent years, there have been cases of stories critical of the government or businessmen close to the government in Cambodia that were removed from the Khmer Times website, all indicating a blatant interference of the government into the editorial affairs of the publication.
No evidence of statutes and no independent assessment mechanism to validate the editorial independence of Khmer Times have been identified.
October 2023