Cambodia

Cambodia has been governed by the Cambodian People’s Party without effective parliamentary opposition since the Supreme Court dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party in November 2017. Hun Sen, Prime Minister for 38 years, handed office to his son Hun Manet in August 2023, following an election independent observers criticised for lacking genuine competition. He became President of the Senate in April 2024. The review period was dominated by armed conflict with Thailand, with major rounds of fighting in July and December 2025 that killed scores of soldiers and civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands before a second ceasefire took effect on 27 December. It was still holding, though fragile, in August 2026.

Cambodia ranked 151st of 180 countries and territories in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index with a score of 33.28, improving from 161st and 28.18 in 2025 but remaining in the “very serious” category. RSF’s assessment is that Cambodia’s main broadcasters and few remaining newspapers generally follow the government line.

The independent sector has been dismantled in stages: The Cambodia Daily closed in 2017 over a tax demand, the Phnom Penh Post was sold in 2018 after another, and Voice of Democracy was shut on Hun Sen’s order in 2023. Prosecutions continue. Journalists Phorn Sopheap and Pheap Pheara received 14-year sentences in December 2025, upheld by the Supreme Court on 25 June 2026; on 14 July 2026 Luot Sophal was sentenced to two years for “demoralising the armed forces” over reporting on water shortages affecting frontline soldiers. A Prakas on Qualifications and Journalistic Professionalism, issued on 27 November 2025, introduced ministry-approved qualifications and good-conduct requirements for journalists, and was criticised in a joint statement by 21 organisations. The Ministry of Information disputes such assessments, reporting in April 2026 that 80.8% of information-sector respondents rated press freedom as good.

The State Media Monitor maps nine organisations in Cambodia: three State-Controlled and six Captured Private.

The state sector is small and administratively simple. TVK, RNK and AKP are general directorates of the Ministry of Information, staffed by civil servants, without separate legal personality or governing boards. Sub-Decree No. 217 of November 2025 names all three among the ministry’s state-media units.

The captured private sector is larger and more varied: CBS, the country’s leading commercial broadcaster; Bayon Television and Kampuchea Thmey Daily, associated with Hun Sen’s eldest daughter; Khmer Times; the Phnom Penh Post, now published by SR Digital Media; and Fresh News, under FN Media.

Cambodia’s distinguishing feature is that two-thirds of its mapped outlets are privately owned. Control runs through proprietors embedded in the governing family, through acquisition after fiscal pressure, and through operational relationships with government actors: Fresh News has no documented ownership link to power at all, yet investigative work traced policy messages reaching it via the Council of Ministers. The ministry’s own directorates are the smaller part of the system.

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