Court charges four journalists for extortion

Authorities say four local journalists in northeast Cambodia’s Ratanakiri Province were sent to the provincial court on Friday for allegedly extorting money from a wood transporter.

Brig.-Gen. Kim Rasmey, chief of Ratanakiri Provincial Military Police, said the four journalists, including a female were caught on Wednesday following a complaint filed by a truck driver who transported wood poles for pepper plantation.

He said the detainees were Yon Tith from the Khmer Youth News, Peng Soktharak from the CPN Online, Mey Menghuy from the Phnom Penh News, and Chan Nara from the TNM Online.

These media outlets are little known in the country.

“Yon Tith was arrested for demanding the wood transporter pay him 500 U.S. dollars monthly, while the three others were nabbed for extorting 600 U.S. dollars from the wood transporter,” Rasmey told Xinhua via telephone.

He said the group had confessed to the crime during an interrogation.

Rasmey said under the country’s Criminal Code, the act of extortion could face between two and five years in prison if convicted.

Source: ( PM News )