PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia’s Supreme Court was expected to decide Thursday on the appeal of two journalists convicted of treason for posting photographs related to border clashes with Thailand last year.
The ruling will come amid growing questions over the high court’s independence.
Phorn Sopheap of Battambang Post TV Online and Pheap Pheara of TSP 68 TV Online were arrested last July while returning from reporting trips to the border on allegations they posted photographs they took in a restricted military zone on Facebook.
The men deny the charges, saying they had permission to be in the area where they shot photos. They are asking the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict and their 14-year prison sentences.
One image showing land mines was widely republished by Thai media outlets and bolstered Thailand’s claims that Cambodia had laid new mines along the border that wounded patrolling Thai soldiers.
Cambodia had officially denied using land mines in the conflict, saying it adhered to international agreements banning their use. Cambodian authorities said the mines might have been left over from decades of conflict that ended in the late 1990s.
The border fighting in July and December displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Thailand and Cambodia and killed about 100 soldiers and civilians. There has been no new fighting since a December ceasefire, though tensions remain high.
In December last year, Siem Reap Provincial Court convicted the two journalists of treason and sentenced them each to 14 years in prison, finding them guilty of “supplying a foreign state with information prejudicial to national defense.”
More than a dozen national and international journalism associations wrote a joint letter calling on the government to withdraw its case after the men’s convictions were upheld by a lower court of appeal in March.
Thursday’s hearing comes less than a week after the same court upheld the incitement conviction of Rong Chhun, a prominent opposition politician, which again renewed focus on the government’s efforts to quash criticism.
The 56-year-old was found guilty last year of inciting social unrest after meeting with villagers displaced by government construction projects, in what was widely seen as one of many legal moves taken by the government of Prime Minister Hun Manet to silence critics.
Human Rights Watch said the ruling demonstrated the “lack of independence from the ruling party” of Cambodian courts. The government defended the decision, saying the Supreme Court was fully independent.
Under almost four decades of autocratic former Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia was widely criticized for human rights abuses that included suppression of freedom of speech and association. He was succeeded in August 2023 by his American-educated son, Hun Manet, but there have been few signs of political liberalization.
The New-York-based Committee to Protect Journalists accused the Cambodian government earlier this year of “using vague national security laws to criminalize legitimate reporting” in the cases of Pheap Pheara and Phorn Sopheap.
Cambodia ranked 161st out of 180 countries and territories in the 2025 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, “placing it among the states where the press freedom situation is considered ’very serious,’” according to the Paris-based organization.
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Rising reported from Bangkok.
