The Phnom Penh Post is a daily English-language newspaper that appears in the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. It was founded in 1992 and appeared initially fortnightly as a full-color tabloid. Later, it was redesigned, and as of 2008, it appeared as a daily publication. A bastion of independent journalism, the newspaper has become politicized following its sale in 2018 to a businessman close to the government.
Media assets
Publishing: Phnom Penh Post
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Private (CaPr)
Ownership and governance
The Phnom Penh Post was sold in May 2018 to a Malaysian investor, Sivakumar S. Ganapathy, who is known to be a staunch supporter of the former Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Source of funding and budget
The newspaper’s owners say that the publication is funded solely through commercial sources, mainly advertising. The publisher has not released any financial reports that would shed light on its sources of funding.
Editorial independence
In the past two years, after its sale to a government-supportive investor, The Phnom Penh Post has lost its independence. Its chief editor Kay Kimsong was sacked for publishing an article about the new owner and the article has since been removed from the paper’s website. The article reported about Ganapathy’s public relations firm ASIA PR, which works for the Cambodian government. The newspaper’s editorial management was taken over by Ly Tayseng who has been working with the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) for a long period of time. Dozens of journalists resigned or were fired at the same time.
No evidence of statutes and no independent assessment mechanism to validate the editorial independence of Phnom Penh Post have been identified.
October 2023