Bayon Television

Bayon Television is a Cambodian free-to-air broadcaster controlled by Hun Mana, eldest daughter of Senate President Hun Sen and sister of Prime Minister Hun Manet. Available corporate and media-ownership records identify her as the owner of Bayon Media Hight System Co., Ltd., the privately held company through which the broadcaster operates. Bayon TV began broadcasting in 1998 on UHF channel 27 in Phnom Penh. Its parent company had been registered with the Ministry of Commerce in 1996.

Media assets

Television: Bayon TV, BTV, ETV

Radio: Bayon Radio

Ownership and governance

Bayon Television is privately held. No state shareholding in its parent company was identified, and the company is not registered as a public body or state enterprise. Reporters Without Borders research confirms ultimate control resting with Hun Mana.

The connection to state authority is familial and political. Hun Mana is the daughter of the Senate President and sister of the Prime Minister; she is married to Dy Vichea, son of Hok Lundy, Hun Sen’s late national police commissioner. Reporting on the Hun family’s commercial holdings has described her as among its most prominent business figures, with directorships or chairmanships across media, advertising, energy, real estate and other sectors. A registry-based investigation published in July 2026 notes that the Ministry of Commerce no longer makes shareholding information publicly available, so current holdings across the family’s companies are harder to verify than in earlier years.

The Media Ownership Monitor of RSF also records that Hun Mana became chairman, director and owner of the Kampuchea Thmey Daily newspaper in 2010. Current ownership and directorship there are harder to establish from the public registry, and the same July 2026 investigation suggests she may since have left the company; that relationship is therefore not relied on as supporting evidence in this profile.

One documented episode links her broadcasting role directly to the office of the head of government. In 2008, following the general election, Hun Sen appointed Hun Mana as an assistant to his office. According to the Ministry of Information, that appointment was attributed to her position as director of Bayon TV and Radio, in order to assist the Prime Minister in the preparation of reports.

Bayon’s participation in Cambodia’s digital television transition proceeded in two stages. In 2021 the country’s three leading privately owned broadcasting groups formed an alliance: a memorandum of understanding was signed on 18 February and a joint venture agreement on 26 August, by Hun Mana as chairwoman of Bayon Media High System Group, Kith Meng for the Royal Group and its Cambodian Broadcasting Service, and Ing Chhay Nguon for Hang Meas Group. On 1 November 2022 the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Cambodian Television Alliance signed the company statute for Cambodian Digital Television, formalising the public-private structure that manages the national digital platform. Contemporary reporting records a seven-member board — one government representative and six alliance representatives — with Hun Mana elected chair for the first term.

Announcing the 2021 agreement, Hun Mana said she was delighted to join the partnership behind the platform, which she stated “supports the promotion of the policies of the Royal Government of Cambodia.”

Source of funding and budget

Bayon operates commercially and carries advertising and sponsorship, but it publishes no financial statements and the composition of its revenue cannot be independently quantified. No formal state subsidy or budget allocation to Bayon has been disclosed, and none was identified during this review.

There is, however, documented evidence of direct personal financial support from the head of government to Bayon journalists. In December 2018, days after a leaked recording in which he intervened in personnel matters at a rival broadcaster, Hun Sen publicly acknowledged paying reporters at both CNC and Bayon, stating that the money was his own and connecting such support to government interests. This was personal funding rather than a state-budget subsidy, but it establishes a financial relationship between the head of government and the newsroom.

Research published in 2016 on the Hun family’s business network also recorded that Bayon TV and Radio sponsored two army battalions under Cambodia’s “culture of sharing” arrangements. That arrangement has not been verified as current.

Under the State Media Matrix, the Captured Private model applies whether or not predominant state funding is present, so the absence of a quantified state subsidy does not affect the classification.

Editorial independence

Bayon has consistently been characterised as aligned with the governing party and the political family that owns it. No publicly accessible editorial charter, ombudsman or independent complaints mechanism was identified, and no codified legal protection for journalistic autonomy at Bayon was identified. No institutional check or independent mechanism for evaluating its editorial impartiality was identified.

The concrete institutional evidence is stronger than any characterisation of coverage. The Ministry of Information’s stated rationale for Hun Mana’s 2008 appointment to the Prime Minister’s office connected her directorship of Bayon TV and Radio to assisting him directly. Her statement on joining the national digital platform described it as supporting the promotion of government policies. And the then Prime Minister publicly acknowledged personally paying Bayon reporters.

Independent assessment has described the Hun family’s media holdings as central to the former Prime Minister’s rule, with Bayon giving him access to a large share of Cambodian households.

AI and digital policy

Bayon Television distributes content through terrestrial broadcasting, its website and social-media channels. No publicly accessible Bayon editorial policy governing generative artificial intelligence, synthetic media, automated production, verification of AI-assisted material or the disclosure of AI-generated content to audiences was identified.

Classification rationale

Bayon Television remains classified Captured Private (CaPr), the Matrix model for outlets subject to editorial control by entities linked to state authorities in the absence of state ownership or state-appointed governing bodies.

On ownership and governance, the state does not own or govern Bayon. Available records identify it as privately controlled by Hun Mana, with no identified state shareholding and no state-appointed directors. This distinguishes it from Cambodia’s State-Controlled outlets (TVK, RNK and AKP) each a general directorate of the Ministry of Information staffed by civil servants.

On editorial control, the Matrix requires persistent and systemic control by entities linked to state authority, and cautions against confusing this with ordinary political alignment. Bayon meets that threshold through a chain of documented connections rather than circumstantial affinity: the proprietor is the daughter of the Senate President and sister of the Prime Minister; her shares were transferred to her by the Prime Minister’s wife; the Ministry of Information attributed her 2008 appointment to the Prime Minister’s office to her role directing Bayon TV and Radio; she publicly described the national digital platform, whose board she was elected to chair for its first term, as supporting the promotion of government policies; and the then Prime Minister publicly acknowledged personally paying Bayon reporters. No structural safeguard against political interference was identified.

On funding, no state subsidy has been disclosed or identified, and Bayon operates commercially. The documented personal payments from the head of government to its journalists are not a state-budget subsidy but bear on the editorial-control finding.

August 2026