Phnom Penh Post

The Phnom Penh Post is a Cambodian news outlet publishing in English and Khmer, now operating exclusively online. It was founded on 10 July 1992 by Michael Hayes and Kathleen O’Keefe as an English-language fortnightly, during the UNTAC period as Cambodia rebuilt after decades of war. It became a daily on 8 August 2008 following its sale to new investors led by the Australian businessmen Ross Dunkley and Bill Clough, and a Khmer-language edition followed in 2009. The paper published in tabloid format until 2008 and Berliner format thereafter.

Media assets

Digital: phnompenhpost.com in English and postkhmer.com in Khmer, both actively publishing in 2026

Print: discontinued. The company announced on 1 March 2024 that both English and Khmer print editions would end, and the final print edition appeared on 29 March. It cited declining advertising revenue after the pandemic-related economic downturn together with the effects of social media and other technology, and confirmed that publication would continue online.

Ownership and governance

The outlet is published by the privately incorporated SR Digital Media Co., Ltd., as stated on its own English and Khmer sites in 2026, with the English site carrying a 2026 copyright in that company’s name. No evidence of state shareholding was identified in the sources reviewed.

The ultimate ownership of SR Digital Media could not be independently established from publicly accessible corporate information reviewed for this update. Earlier State Media Monitor material referred to Star Media Alliance Co. Ltd. as the publisher, described as “sometimes styled SR Digital Media”; the relationship between the two entities could not be established from public records reviewed, and they should not be treated as simply two names for the same company.

The Post was acquired in May 2018 by Sivakumar S. Ganapathy, a Malaysian businessman, from Bill Clough, chairman of the then publisher Post Media Ltd. At the time of the acquisition, Ganapathy was managing director of Asia Public Relations Consultants Sdn Bhd; Reuters reported that the firm’s website listed “Cambodia and Hun Sen’s entry into the government seat” among its projects. A current corporate link between Ganapathy and SR Digital Media was not independently verified during this review.

The circumstances of the 2018 sale are material. The Post had been presented the previous year with a tax demand of US$3.9 million. Chad Williams, its former editor-in-chief, told Reuters that the odds of the tax settlement and the sale being unconnected appeared extremely remote, and said this suggested the government may have used the threat of shutdown to coerce the sale. Human Rights Watch has separately characterised the transaction as government-coerced. The Cambodian People’s Party rejected suggestions of government interference. Clough stated that the tax issue had been resolved and that a court order to confiscate the newspaper’s assets had been cancelled pending appeal.

The pattern is not isolated. The Cambodia Daily was closed in 2017 after a tax demand of about US$6.3 million it could not pay, and Voice of Democracy ceased operations in 2023 after Hun Sen ordered its closure over a story concerning his son. Both are context for the wider dismantling of Cambodia’s independent media rather than direct evidence about the Post.

Ly Tayseng, who was publicly identified as the Post’s chief executive and publisher when the print closure was announced in 2024, is a Cambodian lawyer whose current professional biography lists several formal advisory roles within the Royal Government, including as adviser and vice-chair of the Legal and Justice Council of the Ministry of Justice and as a member of the Council of Jurists in the Office of the Council of Ministers. A current 2026 Post masthead identifying the individual chief executive or publisher was not located.

No publicly disclosed independent board or structural mechanism separating ownership from editorial authority was identified.

Source of funding and budget

Advertising is an important commercial revenue source: the Post publishes a 2026 advertising rate card, and its 2024 print-closure announcement specifically cited declining advertising revenue. No audited financial statements or funding disclosures were identified, and the outlet’s financial structure is not publicly documented.

No evidence of a state subsidy to the Phnom Penh Post was found in the sources reviewed. The company’s own account of the print closure, falling advertising revenue, the post-pandemic downturn and competition from social media, is consistent with commercial pressure rather than with state support.

Under the State Media Matrix, the Captured Private model applies whether or not predominant state funding is present, so this does not affect the classification.

Editorial independence

The 2018 sale produced an immediate editorial crisis. Editor-in-chief Kay Kimsong was dismissed on 7 May 2018, after refusing an instruction to remove an article scrutinising the sale and the new owner’s government connections. Representatives of the new owner ordered the article’s removal and it was taken down. Five senior staff resigned immediately alongside the chief executive Marcus Holmes, and Reuters reported that as many as thirteen foreign journalists resigned. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand said it was dismayed, warning that such tactics jeopardised hopes of maintaining a moderately free press in Cambodia.

Joshua Purushotman was appointed editor-in-chief after Kimsong’s dismissal. Ly Tayseng, who had acted as Ganapathy’s lawyer, took the management side of the new ownership structure and subsequently became chief executive and publisher; contemporary reporting indicated that he and the incoming editor would be involved in vetting articles.

The Phnom Penh Post now publishes an Editorial Policy committing its newsroom to independent, accurate and ethical journalism, verification and fact-checking, the rejection of unverified or plagiarised material, and transparent corrections. Its About Us page similarly declares a mission of providing independent journalism supporting democratic discourse. The policy is a new and relevant development since the previous State Media Monitor review. It does not, however, set out structural protections for editorial appointments or safeguards against proprietorial interference, and no publicly disclosed independent governing or complaints body was identified. A content analysis conducted by State Media Monitor in May and June 2026 found coverage of the authorities, and of Hun Sen in particular, to be overwhelmingly positive. On subjects other than the political leadership, however, the outlet’s reporting was assessed as making a genuine attempt at objectivity, in neutral language.

AI and digital policy

The Phnom Penh Post has incorporated artificial intelligence into its digital presentation. In 2026 its English-language website offers automated narration of articles through a feature explicitly labelled “AI Voice.”

The outlet’s published Editorial Policy does not specify rules governing generative artificial intelligence, synthetic media, AI-assisted news production or verification of AI-generated material, beyond the explicit labelling of the voice feature. No separate AI-specific editorial policy was identified.

Classification rationale

The Phnom Penh Post 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, no evidence of state shareholding or state-appointed directors was identified. The outlet is published by the privately incorporated SR Digital Media Co., Ltd. Its ultimate ownership could not be established from publicly accessible records, and the 2018 purchaser should not be projected forward as the verified 2026 owner. This distinguishes the Post 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 historical evidence of capture is unusually strong. In 2018 the newspaper was sold immediately after the resolution of a US$3.9 million tax demand; Human Rights Watch characterised the transaction as coerced; the purchaser had a documented Cambodian government connection through his public relations business; the editor-in-chief was dismissed after refusing to remove reporting on the new owner’s links; the article was taken down; and senior staff resigned en masse. That is considerably more than editorial sympathy with a government.

The question for 2026 is continuity, since the Matrix tests persistent and systemic control rather than a capture event eight years past. Two considerations bear on this. Current ownership of SR Digital Media is not publicly established. And the Post now publishes an Editorial Policy asserting independent, accurate and ethical journalism, a countervailing development, though one that stops well short of structural safeguards: it provides no protected editorial appointments, no ownership firewall, no independent governing body, ombudsman or enforceable complaints mechanism. A 2026 content analysis, however, is consistent with this: alignment concentrated on coverage of the political leadership rather than expressed as uniform promotional output.

On funding, no state subsidy was identified, and the outlet’s stated position and account of the print closure are consistent with commercial operation under commercial pressure.

The classification is therefore retained, with current ultimate ownership recorded as an unresolved, low-confidence data point rather than filled from the 2018 record.

July 2026