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Cambodia: a rapper defies power

2022-02-15T11:38:02.510Z


While the Cambodian power seeks to muzzle any opposition, Kea Sokun, a rapper already convicted of "incitement to commit a crime", does not give up his freedom of expression.


Arrested in September 2020 after the publication of two songs deemed subversive, Kea Sokun refuses to submit to the injunctions of the Hun Sen regime, which is strengthening its control over the population more than ever.

On February 16, a

“national internet gateway”

will allow the authorities to control all web traffic in Cambodia, including from abroad.

The rapper was sentenced to eighteen months in prison in December 2020. Released after just one year, his six-month suspended sentence is a way for the authorities to ensure that Kea Sokun remains in the ranks, and to remind him that he

"is not yet legally free"

.

The rapper also revealed that the government had offered him a reduced sentence if he apologized publicly, which he refused:

“I will not say that I am sorry.

And I never will be

. "

Kea Sokun deplores that the government does not make him

"an example to scare people who talk about social issues".

In his

"Khmer Land"

and

"Sad Race" music videos,

he criticizes government policy, describes a starving population and a country losing ground to its neighbours, referring to the controversial border between Cambodia and Vietnam.

If Kea Sokun claims to tell the problems of daily life in Cambodia, the authorities see in them words inciting

"social unrest"

.

The Internet under control

The rapper is not the only one affected by this control of freedom of expression online.

According to the

New York Times

, dozens of citizens have recently been sent to prison for jokes, poems or photos.

And the number of Internet users at risk of being imprisoned could soon skyrocket, while digital surveillance must be reinforced in the coming days.

On February 16, Cambodia will set up a new

“national internet gateway”

.

Thanks to this gateway, the government will be able to filter all the content published on the Cambodian internet.

The new regulations notably authorize the regime to block sites and communications deemed contrary to

“security, social order, morality, culture, traditions and customs”

.

This control will be done through a regulatory body responsible for monitoring online activities.

The new law worries many opponents, associations and journalists.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Cambodia could achieve

"a level of information control not seen since the Khmer Rouge dictatorship"

.

San Mala, an advocacy officer with the Cambodian Youth Network, worries about the consequences for the work of his association.

“As a civil society organization, we are concerned about this internet gateway law because we fear that our work will be monitored or that our conversations will be spied on or that [the power] may attend online meetings with us without invitation or permission

,” he warned in the New York Times.

The dissidents, however, do not intend to abandon their activities.

“It will be even more difficult to express one's opinions freely

,” worries Kea Sokun, but he declares that he will continue to write his texts.

He is now working on a new album.

San Mala explains that we will have to

“change our communication habits”

.

For example, he turned to encrypted messaging, such as Signal or Telegram, and uses coded language.

The Chinese model

This gateway follows the model of China's

"Great Firewall"

inaugurated in the 2000s. According to Sophal Ear, a dean of the Thunderbird School of Global Management at the University of Arizona,

"authorities are emboldened by China, a example of an authoritarian state that gives Cambodia political cover, new technologies and financial resources”

.

If he explains that this Cambodian gateway will only centralize a system which was until then decentralized, he adds that the consequences will not be negligible for the opposition.

"The result will be to crush what little freedom of expression is left,"

he said.

The regime describes these new regulations as essential to the maintenance of peace and security.

According to government spokesman Phay Siphan,

“with freedom of expression comes great responsibility”.

He then accused the associations of

“spreading paranoia”

.

“We warn them.

We lecture them, we make them sign documents, and then the next week they post the same things, without taking responsibility for maintaining social peace.

, he added.

The Internet gateway was the only weapon missing from the arsenal of Hun Sen, the dictator in power for nearly 37 years, to control all aspects of freedom of expression.

The man who rules the country with an iron fist even replied, about the Arab Spring which overthrew regimes similar to his,

"I'm not just weakening the opposition, I'm going to kill them […] and if someone 'one is strong enough to try to hold a demonstration, I will beat all these dogs and put them in a cage'

.

While the traditional media has been muzzled for several years already, it seems obvious to analysts that the dictator is now attacking online opposition.

According to government statistics, internet subscriptions have quadrupled in six years, from 5 million in 2014 to 20.3 million in 2020. Facebook is the most popular social network in the country, with no less than 10 million users.

Online service providers will be the first to be affected by this new regulation.

They have one year to connect to the gateway, or they risk having their bank accounts frozen and losing their operating license.

Meta, Facebook's new parent company, said it

"joined other stakeholders in sharing comments on this law with the Cambodian government, and expressing our strong support for a free and open Internet

. "

Activists fear that this new round of screws against freedom of expression will result in a resurgence of disinformation, while elections are to be held soon.

“It is no coincidence that after shutting down critical media across the country, the Hun Sen government turned to online criticism, just in time for the nationwide communal elections that are due to take place in 2022

,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Just before the 2018 legislative elections, during which the People's Party, the single formation which has dominated the political system for several decades, won all the seats, Hun Sen had already carried out a similar operation.

A year before the election, many independent media had shut down and a wave of arrests had taken opponents to prison.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-02-15

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