Law and judiciary
Govt wants Mekong group to address scam gangs
The government will use the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) meeting this week to seek cooperation from neighbouring countries to address the problem of call centre scam gangs. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said he had instructed Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa to raise the issue with participating countries and ...
Post Reporters
UN Warns Thousands Trafficked into Online Crime in SE Asia
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — Hundreds of thousands of people are being coerced in Southeast Asia by criminal gangs into carrying out online scams, often under the threat of torture, the United Nations said Tuesday. Many have been trafficked into working in online criminality and face serious violations such ...
Cambodian Leader U-Turns on Rare Dolphin Conservation Law
PHNOM PENH — Cambodian leader Hun Sen on Thursday cancelled a law he created just two months ago to protect critically endangered Mekong dolphins as the mammals continue to die from illegal fishing activities. The population of Irrawaddy dolphins in the river Mekong has dwindled from 200, ...
AFP
Ratify enforced disappearance pact now
As of last year, according to UN figures, there were nearly 80 unresolved cases of enforced disappearances in Thailand. Considering the country now has a law in place against enforced disappearances, in force since earlier in the year, how should we prevent and remedy these ...
VITIT MUNTARBHORN
Number of IDPs in Myanmar Has Surged Above 1.8 Million
The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) surpassed 1.8 million in war-ravaged Myanmar on June 12, 2023, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Prior to the February 2021 military coup, the estimated number of internally displaced people was 328,000. They were in ...
THE IRRAWADDY
Myanmar Military Court Sentences Ex-Publisher to Five Years for Sedition
The former publisher of independent news outlet The Irrawaddy has been sentenced to five years in prison for sedition, marking the latest in a barrage of attacks on the press in Myanmar following the 2021 military coup. Thaung Win was sentenced by the military-controlled Western Yangon District Court ...
Liam Scott
US, UN slam arrest of prominent Vietnamese environmental activist
The United States and United Nations has criticised Vietnam’s detention of a prominent climate activist, saying such actions were part of a broader trend towards curbing free speech. Hoang Thi Minh Hong, the founder of now-defunct NGO CHANGE, which aimed to tackle some of the country’s most ...
NEWS AGENCIES
Climate of fear engulfs Vietnam’s mainstream media
A fear-cloaked dynamic has increasingly percolated Vietnam’s information environment, in both cyberspace and the mainstream media. A decree guiding the controversial Cybersecurity Law, which took effect in October 2022, looks to further empower Vietnamese authorities to censor online content they disfavour and bolster the state’s digital surveillance ...
Dien Luong, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Cambodia sentences 36 opposition officials to prison terms on conspiracy charges
A court in Cambodia on Thursday sentenced 36 senior officials of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, most of whom have already fled the country, to between five and seven years in prison. The opposition officials were convicted of supporting party Vice President Mu Sochua in ...
Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong
Cambodia wildlife official faces 145 years in jail for smuggling long-tailed macaques to US
Federal prosecutors have charged eight people with smuggling endangered monkeys, including a Cambodian wildlife official who was arrested in the US while travelling to a conference on protecting endangered species. The official plus a colleague in that country’s wildlife agency and six people connected to a ...
Associated Press