PHNOM PENH: Crisis gripped Cambodia’s last independent newspaper Monday as the editor-in-chief was fired by its new owner over a front-page article on the sale, while several senior reporters resigned in protest at the apparent attack on editorial integrity.
The 26-year-old Phnom Penh Post was sold to Malaysian investor Sivakumar S Ganapathy over the weekend for an unknown sum.
Since then the newspaper, once respected for its fearless, independent reporting, has gone into meltdown — the latest unraveling of a prominent media organization under the watch of Cambodia’s increasingly authoritarian premier Hun Sen.
Editor Kay Kimsong said he was sacked for signing off on a piece exploring the implications of the sale.
“The new owner fired me today... because I approved today’s front-page story,” Kimsong said.
“I have done my duty as editor-in-chief for the newspaper... but the new boss has the right to make the decision.”
The story identified the new proprietor as the Malaysian investor, who is also the CEO of Kuala Lumpur-based public relations firm Asia PR, a business the report said “has previously done work” for Hun Sen.
The two reporters who wrote the piece resigned on Monday afternoon and at least one senior editor on the English-language version of paper also quit — all three alleging they were ordered to pull the story.
“I resigned this morning after being told to take down the Post’s story on its sale, which I refused to do,” Stuart White, the former managing editor of the English-language paper said.
The story was still available on Monday afternoon on the Post’s website.
A spokesperson for Asia PR declined to make an immediate comment and repeated calls to The Post went unanswered on Monday afternoon.
Media deemed to be critical of Cambodia’s government have been eviscerated by hefty tax bills and defamation cases over recent months.
Rights groups say the legal woes are linked to Hun Sen, who is clearing the board of all potential opposition ahead of elections in July.
The Post’s chief rival, the Cambodia Daily, was forced to close in August 2017 after it was landed with an unpayable tax bill, announcing its closure the same day authorities arrested opposition leader Kem Sokha on treason charges.
The crackdown also saw dozens of radio stations taken off air and the jailing of two reporters from Radio Free Asia.
Cambodia plunged 10 places in this year’s media freedom ranking by Reporters Without Borders.
In recent months local media had reported that the Phnom Penh Post was facing tax troubles.
Editor of renowned Cambodia paper fired by new Malaysian owners
Editor of renowned Cambodia paper fired by new Malaysian owners
Study finds nearly half of UK news stories on Muslims show signs of bias
- Centre for Media Monitoring finds 20,000 out of 40,913 articles from 30 major news outlets contain bias and 70% link Muslims to negative behaviors or themes
- Findings reveal ‘deeply concerning evidence of structural bias’ in portrayal of Muslims by UK press and point to ‘systemic problem’ within the media, says center’s director
LONDON: Nearly half of news articles published in the UK in 2025 that referenced Muslims or Islam contained some degree of bias, according to a report issued on Monday by the Centre for Media Monitoring. It also found that about 70 percent of stories linked Muslims to negative behaviors or themes.
The nonprofit organization, which tracks the ways in which Muslims and Islam are portrayed in the media, examined 40,913 articles from 30 major news outlets and found that about 20,000 showed some form of bias.
The study looked at “structural patterns” in coverage that “shape public narratives” about Muslims amid rising hostility toward the community.
“As the largest study of its kind ever conducted in the UK, this report presents deeply concerning evidence of structural bias in how Muslims are portrayed in the UK press,” said Rizwana Hamid, the director of the organization.
It found that 70 percent of the articles it reviewed highlighted negative aspects related to Muslims, though not all of the stories were biased in themselves. The wider patterns were also troubling: 44 percent of the coverage omitted key context, 17 percent relied on generalizations, and 13 percent included outright misrepresentation.
Taken together, the monitoring center said, the findings amounted to evidence of an “information integrity crisis” that distorts public understanding, and “a deeply concerning trend” in reporting on Muslims.
The research points to a “systemic problem within our media ecosystem,” Hamid said.
“When entire communities are repeatedly framed through lenses of suspicion or threat, it inevitably shapes public attitudes, political debate and the everyday lives of British Muslims,” she added.
News brands targeting right-wing audiences were more likely to produce biased coverage, the report found.
The Spectator magazine and GB News were identified as having the highest proportion of “very biased” articles, and as the “worst across all five bias categories”: negative framing, generalizations, misrepresentation, lack of context, and problematic headlines.
Other outlets highlighted for displaying high levels of biased content about Muslims included The Telegraph, The Jewish Chronicle, Daily Express, The Sun, Daily Mail and The Times.
In contrast, the BBC, other broadcasters and left-leaning outlets recorded the lowest rates of bias in the study.
The research comes as British Muslims report rising levels of discrimination. Official figures published in October revealed that religious hate crimes against Muslims rose by 19 percent in the year to March 2025 compared with the previous 12 months.
