The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed against the outlet by Kyrgyz prosecutors in April, which alleged “negative” and “destructive” coverage of the government. 

“The Kyrgyz authorities must allow Aprel TV to continue its work unhindered and should not contest any appeal of the court’s Wednesday order to shutter the independent broadcaster and terminate its broadcasting and social media operations,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Kyrgyzstan’s international partners – particularly the European Union, whose parliament and member states are in the process of ratifying a new partnership agreement – must hold Kyrgyzstan to account for its spiraling press freedom abuses.” 

The judge accepted prosecutors’ arguments that the outlet’s reporting, which often included commentary and reports critical of the government, could “provoke calls for mass unrest with the aim of a subsequent seizure of power,” according to CPJ’s review of the verdict. 

Aprel TV’s editor-in-chief Dmitriy Lozhnikov told privately owned news website 24.kg that criticizing the government isn’t a crime, but one of the core functions of the press. CPJ was unable to immediately confirm whether the outlet would appeal.

Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security (SCNS) summoned 10 current and former Aprel TV staff for questioning on July 1 in connection with a separate, undisclosed criminal investigation. 

The journalists’ lawyer told Radio Azattyk, the local service of U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), that investigators’ questions appeared to indicate that authorities will open a case on allegations of incitement of mass unrest or acts against the constitutional order.

CPJ’s email to the SCNS for comment on the criminal investigation did not immediately receive a reply.

Aprel TV is highly critical of the government, often adopting an irreverent tone as it broadcasts via oppositional broadcaster Next TV and reports to its 700,000 followers on several social media accounts.

Following President Sadyr Japarov’s ascent to power in 2020, Kyrgyz authorities have launched an unprecedented assault on the country’s previously vibrant media, shuttering leading outlets and jailing journalists on the grounds that their critical reporting could lead to social unrest.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

For more than a year, a little-known government agency has been investigating the incident. But the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board will likely shut down before completing its probes of the Dow explosion and other such incidents across the country. President Donald Trump’s administration has quietly proposed shutting down the board, an independent federal agency charged with uncovering the causes of large-scale chemical accidents.

Near the end of a 1,224-page budget document released with little fanfare on May 30, White House officials said shutting down the agency, commonly called the CSB, will help “move the nation toward fiscal responsibility” as the Trump administration works to “redefine the proper role of the federal government.” The CSB’s $14 million annual budget would be zeroed out for the 2026 fiscal year and its emergency fund of $844,000 would be earmarked for closure-related costs. The process of shutting the agency down is set to begin this year, according to CSB documents. 

Eliminating the CSB will come at a cost to the safety of plant workers and neighboring communities, especially along the Gulf Coast, where the bulk of the U.S. petrochemical industry is concentrated, said former CSB officials and environmental groups. 

“Closing the CSB will mean more accidents at chemical plants, more explosions and more deaths,” said Beth Rosenberg, a public health expert who served on the CSB board from 2013 to 2014. 

“This shows that the Trump administration does not care about frontline communities already burdened with this industry,” said Roishetta Ozane, founder of the Vessel Project, an environmental justice group in Lake Charles. “We’re the ones who have to shelter in place or evacuate whenever there’s an explosion or (chemical) release, and now there will be less oversight when these things happen.”

The CSB did not respond to a request for comment. 

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The proposed closure of the CSB follows several other moves by the Trump administration to slash staffing levels at the Environmental Protection Agency and ease federal health and safety regulations. 

Founded in 1998, the CSB investigates the causes of petrochemical accidents and issues recommendations to plants, regulators and business groups. The CSB doesn’t impose fines or penalties, instead relying on voluntary compliance or on enforcement by other agencies, such as the EPA, to mandate safety improvements.

Of the more than 100 investigations the CSB has conducted, Texas leads the country with 22 cases, followed by Louisiana with eight. 

“Those numbers tell us that Louisiana and Texas really need the Chemical Safety Board, and there will certainly be negative impacts here if it closes down,” said Wilma Subra, an environmental scientist with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network.

Along with the Dow chemical explosion, the agency has four other active investigations of incidents in Texas, Kentucky, Georgia and Virginia. CSB investigations often take several months to complete. 

In an update of the Dow explosion investigation last year, the CSB hinted at “several events of concern” at the chemical complex between Baton Rouge and the town of Plaquemine — an area that forms part of the industrial corridor known as “Cancer Alley.” Among the targets of the investigation were at least two mechanical problems, multiple smaller explosions after the initial blow-up, and the release of more than 30,000 pounds of ethylene oxide, a colorless gas the agency noted is a cancer-causing substance.

The CSB’s last completed investigation was a fatal 2024 explosion at a steel hardening facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The CSB identified several safety failures and at least three other dangerous incidents involving similar hazards at other facilities owned by the same company, HEF Groupe of France. 

HEF “failed to ensure that information about those incidents and lessons learned from them were shared and implemented organization-wide,” the CSB investigation, released early this month, found. 

A chain reaction of mishaps at the Chattanooga facility resulted in an eruption of “hot molten salt” that killed a worker, according to the investigation. 

On average, hazardous chemical accidents happen once every other day in the U.S., according to Coming Clean, an environmental health nonprofit. Coming Clean documented 825 fires, leaks and other chemical-related incidents between January 2021 and October 2023. The incidents killed at least 43 people and triggered evacuation orders and advisories in nearly 200 communities.

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Trump called for the CSB’s closure during his first term but settled for leaving many investigator and agency leadership positions unfilled. Slowing the agency’s work resulted in a backlog of 14 unfinished investigations by the time Joe Biden took office in 2021. 

Under the first Trump administration, investigations were hampered by staffing shortages and months-long conflicts between the board and the agency’s Trump-appointed director, according to a federal inspector’s report. 

In the new budget proposal, the Trump administration indicated the CSB’s duties could be handled by other agencies.

“The CSB duplicates substantial capabilities in the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to investigate chemical-related mishaps,” a CSB budget proposal said. “This function should reside within agencies that have authorities to issue regulations…”

This justification is “a lie,” said Jordan Barab, a former deputy assistant secretary of OSHA and a former CSB recommendations manager. 

While OSHA and the EPA are limited to assessing specific violations of their existing standards and regulations, the CSB can look far more broadly and at the “deeper causes” of accidents, including worker fatigue, corporate budget cuts and lax oversight, Barab said. 

Even when other federal agencies appeared to ignore CSB recommendations, community groups and local governments could cite them when pushing for improved safety standards, Ozane said. 

“It was scientific evidence we could all use to pressure the state or the federal regulators to do something about pollution and safety in the places we live,” she said. “This is just another tool and another resource that’s been taken away from us.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump quietly shutters the only federal agency that investigates industrial chemical explosions on Jun 16, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Tristan Baurick.

The following is a reaction by Matthew Tejada, Senior Vice President for Environmental Health at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). Prior to joining NRDC, Tejada led EPA’s environmental justice office.

“Trump’s EPA is taking us back to a time of unfettered pollution across the nation, leaving every American exposed to toxic chemicals, dirty air and contaminated water.

“The grants that EPA moved to cancel are some of the most important to help make communities across the nation safer, healthier, and more prosperous. They are helping rural Virginia coal communities prepare for extreme flooding, installing sewage systems on rural Alabama homes, and turning an abandoned, polluted site in Tampa, Florida into a campus for healthcare, job training, and a small business development.

“Those who have paid the highest price for pollution, with their health, are now the first to be sacrificed by Trump’s EPA. But they will not be the last. Every American should be worried about what this portends. We are witnessing the first step of removing environmental protections from everyone, as the chemical industry and fossil fuel producers get their way – and the rest of us will pay with our health and lost legal rights.”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

On Dec. 4, a sinkhole measuring 20 meters (65 feet) wide and 10 meters (33 feet) deep opened up on farmland in Thakhaek district’s Pak Peng village. On Dec. 21, another sinkhole — about half the size of the first — formed nearby.

Residents suspect the sinkholes are a result of excavation at a potash mine in neighboring Nong Bok district, operated by Sino-Agri International Potash Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Asia Potash International Investment (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., which is linked to entities directed by China’s governing State Council.

After a month of central government inspections of the mine, the cause remains unclear.

However, the company has been ordered to fill both sinkholes, a government official said Monday, speaking to RFA Lao on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“The two sinkholes will be filled up with dirt. The company will carry out this task,” the official said, adding that after meeting with central government officials, a cause has not yet been determined.

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Because fault has not been determined, the company may not have to pay compensation, the official said.

A Pak Peng resident told RFA that those who live near the sinkholes are terrified of further collapses.

“They are scared. The sinkholes are right in the middle of the rice fields,” the villager said.

Filling in the holes is only a temporary fix, a Lao expert told RFA.

“Underground extraction is very dangerous. One day the mine will collapse,” he said. “Dirt is excavated and water flushes will cause more sinkholes over the next 20 years. It won’t be long before we start seeing the consequences.”

Translated by RFA Lao. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.

Soldiers arrested Htet Aung, the Sittwe-based reporter for Development Media Group, or DMG, and night watchman Soe Win Aung, and no one has had any contact with them yet, they said.

DMG was established in 2012 along the Thailand-Myanmar border, but later moved its operations to Rakhine’s capital Sittwe. The news outlet covers armed conflict and human rights violations in the western state that borders Bangladesh.

When some family members went to the Sittwe police station where the two were detained, police did not allow them to meet, said Ma Aye Yi, mother of Htet Aung.

“When I went there to take lunch [to my son], they told me that [he] had been taken to the military security affairs office for interrogation,” she said. 

Silencing news outlets

The ruling military junta, which seized power in a February 2021 coup, has cracked down on independent media outlets in Myanmar to silence them from reporting about the coup, its violent aftermath, and armed conflict. 

In 2021, the junta shut down five media outlets that provided independent coverage of the protests against military rule. This year, the regime threatened legal action against Democratic Voice of Burma TV and Mizzima TV, demanding the shuttered independent news broadcasters pay thousands of dollars in transmission fees, VOA reported in July.

Soldiers arrested Htet Aung while he was taking news photos at the Wingabar open field in Rakhine’s capital city. Sometime later, about 20 junta troops with police raided DMG’s office and arrested the night watchman.

The soldiers and police also confiscated cameras, computers and office accessories before sealing the building, DMG news agency officials said.

It was a violent suppression of the independent news media, one news agency official said.

“We condemn the arresting of journalists and office staff and raiding of the office,” the person said. “It is an act of terrorism. No matter how they suppress us, we will report the truth from the ground as much as we can.”

Not the first time

Meanwhile, the families of the other workers who fled to safety said they don’t know about their whereabouts.   

RFA’s calls to the state attorney general, who is the junta’s spokesman for Rakhine state, went unanswered.

The State Administration Council, as the junta regime is known, has not yet issued a statement about the raid.

This isn’t the first time the military has targeted DMG.

In 2019, the military and the military-controlled Home Affairs Ministry under the previous civilian-led government filed a criminal case against DMG editor-in-chief Aung Min Oo for allegedly violating Section 17(2) of the country’s Unlawful Associations Act.

The military filed defamation lawsuits under Section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law against other DMG reporters in 2021.

Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

Soldiers arrested Htet Aung, the Sittwe-based reporter for Development Media Group, or DMG, and night watchman Soe Win Aung, and no one has had any contact with them yet, they said.

DMG was established in 2012 along the Thailand-Myanmar border, but later moved its operations to Rakhine’s capital Sittwe. The news outlet covers armed conflict and human rights violations in the western state that borders Bangladesh.

When some family members went to the Sittwe police station where the two were detained, police did not allow them to meet, said Ma Aye Yi, mother of Htet Aung.

“When I went there to take lunch [to my son], they told me that [he] had been taken to the military security affairs office for interrogation,” she said. 

Silencing news outlets

The ruling military junta, which seized power in a February 2021 coup, has cracked down on independent media outlets in Myanmar to silence them from reporting about the coup, its violent aftermath, and armed conflict. 

In 2021, the junta shut down five media outlets that provided independent coverage of the protests against military rule. This year, the regime threatened legal action against Democratic Voice of Burma TV and Mizzima TV, demanding the shuttered independent news broadcasters pay thousands of dollars in transmission fees, VOA reported in July.

Soldiers arrested Htet Aung while he was taking news photos at the Wingabar open field in Rakhine’s capital city. Sometime later, about 20 junta troops with police raided DMG’s office and arrested the night watchman.

The soldiers and police also confiscated cameras, computers and office accessories before sealing the building, DMG news agency officials said.

It was a violent suppression of the independent news media, one news agency official said.

“We condemn the arresting of journalists and office staff and raiding of the office,” the person said. “It is an act of terrorism. No matter how they suppress us, we will report the truth from the ground as much as we can.”

Not the first time

Meanwhile, the families of the other workers who fled to safety said they don’t know about their whereabouts.   

RFA’s calls to the state attorney general, who is the junta’s spokesman for Rakhine state, went unanswered.

The State Administration Council, as the junta regime is known, has not yet issued a statement about the raid.

This isn’t the first time the military has targeted DMG.

In 2019, the military and the military-controlled Home Affairs Ministry under the previous civilian-led government filed a criminal case against DMG editor-in-chief Aung Min Oo for allegedly violating Section 17(2) of the country’s Unlawful Associations Act.

The military filed defamation lawsuits under Section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law against other DMG reporters in 2021.

Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

The move is the latest bid by the junta to cut off the flow of assistance to Myanmar’s armed resistance, which the military has vowed to eradicate in the aftermath of its Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat, but which has made increasing gains on the ground in key areas of the country.

An investigation by RFA Burmese found that last month the junta closed at least 721 accounts it accused of ties to anti-junta forces with mobile banking providers including KBZPay, WavePay, AYAPay, and CBPay. The junta shuttered similar bank accounts prior to May, although the number was not immediately clear.

Account holders who were locked out of their accounts told RFA that the military had ordered Myanmar’s Central Bank to monitor “irregular” money transfers and deposits and to crack down on associated accounts.

While some of the closed accounts may have been used by individuals funneling money to anti-junta organizations including the People’s Defense Force paramilitary group and shadow National Unity Government, others belonged to ordinary civilians running small businesses, some of those affected said Friday.

Yangon resident Wai Oo said his KBZPay account, which he opened in 2019 to run his online shopping business, was closed by the junta last week with nearly 2 million kyats (US$950) still in it. He said he went to his bank to explain the mistake, but was forced to leave without his money or account reinstated.

“If they want to cut off support to the PDF, they should do their due diligence first,” he said. “Online shopping businesses like mine make bank transactions on a daily basis and they should investigate them more carefully. We are being hurt by this baseless closure of our accounts.”

Amar Myint, a woman from Monywa, also had her KBZPay account frozen on the order of the central bank with no explanation given, even though she only used it for regular banking activities.

“I’m just an ordinary citizen who minds her own business and I don’t get involved in any complicated activities,” she said, adding that she mostly used her account to pay for her internet access and shop online. “When I talked to the bank, they didn’t say anything beyond that they were instructed to do so by the central bank.”

Transactions monitored daily

RFA also spoke with employees of private banks who said that, since the coup, they have had to report their institution’s online and mobile bank account transactions to the central bank on “a daily and monthly basis.”

“Among the accounts, those with at least 10 daily transactions and or that make transfers of 2 million kyats or more are monitored separately,” said an official at one bank who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. “When an account is suspected of transferring money to other regions, they close the account permanently.”

Attempts by RFA to contact central bank officials regarding the closure of mobile bank accounts went unanswered Friday.

Junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun said at a press conference in the capital Naypyidaw in September that the imposition of such strict rules was done to “prevent financial fraud and violence.”

Making lives difficult

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, a group formed by former military officers, told RFA that the account closures are key to protecting the nation from terrorism.

“If you look at it from a national security standpoint, it’s worrying that some huge amounts of money are transferred from one place to another for suspicious activities by using modern technology and no one can trace them,” he said. “If these transactions can’t be strictly controlled, the resistance groups will continue to receive support, which will lead to more rebellion and chaos for the people.”

But Sayar Kyaung, the leader of the anti-junta Yangon UG Association, said that the regime’s closing of mobile bank accounts impacts not only PDF groups but also the livelihoods of regular civilians.

“The junta knows that people will not be able to pay attention to the revolution if making ends meet becomes more and more difficult,” he said. “The junta is trying to cripple people’s businesses so that they will be less willing to support the revolution.”

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

The closure comes amid an intensified military offensive against rebel forces in Chin state, where on April 10, a junta jet dropped bombs near a high school in Falam township, killing nine civilians and injuring four others. 

Thousands of Myanmar nationals have fled fighting and taken refuge across the border in India’s Mizoram state.

Sources told RFA Burmese that on March 22, the charred remains of three Myanmar-born ethnic Chin women holding Indian citizenship were discovered in Matupi. An investigation identified the victims as C. Biaksuii, 48, Bablu Talukdar, 37, and B. Lathafamkima, 44, but has yet to determine who is responsible for their deaths.

In the aftermath of the discovery, civil society organizations in Mizoram issued a statement warning Indian nationals against traveling into Myanmar and on April 6, Indian authorities shuttered the two main border gates at Matupi’s Hlungmang and Gawnglaung villages, residents told RFA. Additionally, crossings accessed from the Chin towns of Rihkhawdar and Thantalan were also closed by the Indian side, they said.

A resident of Matupi, who declined to be named for security reasons, told RFA that the closure of the border gates had cut off access to food, medical treatment, and refuge for inhabitants of the township.

“The closure of the border is mostly related to the murder of Indian nationals,” the resident said. “It’s caused a lot of trouble for Myanmar refugees in Matupi. They can’t enter the Indian side for now.”

Attempts by RFA to contact Thant Zin, the junta’s social affairs minister and spokesman for Chin state, for comment on the measures taken to restrict border crossings went unanswered Tuesday.

“What I mean by ‘illegal’ includes doing business illegally, committing crimes and that sort of activity,” Dokhar told RFA. “I urge all Myanmar refugees not to become involved in such activities because one person’s crime can impact tens of thousands of refugees sheltering in India.”

Arrests in Manipur

Following the deaths of the three Indian nationals, residents of India’s Manipur state, which also borders Chin state to the north, said that they have seen authorities conduct a series of arrests of Myanmar nationals on the grounds of illegal immigration.

In one incident on April 6, authorities in Manipur arrested a group of six men, 11 women, and six children from Myanmar who had fled across the border to Langkaur township and were working in the local weaving industry, Myanmar refugees told RFA.

“The reason for their arrest is that they did not have permission to stay in the town,” a Myanmar national in Langkaur told RFA. “They were supposed to stay in temporary refugee shelters being built by the Manipur government. They are being kept in a temporary detention center for now and will be moved to the refugee shelters once they are complete.”

Police in Manipur began hunting Myanmar nationals living in the state at the start of the year and, as of the beginning of March, had arrested around 170 people, according to aid workers assisting refugees.

“They came and took pictures of the refugees and issued refugee identity cards to them … saying that it will be more secure to live there,” said a refugee in Moreh, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity. “They have made a list of the refugees, too. We are currently staying near the villages along the border.”

RFA emailed the Indian Embassy in Yangon inquiring after the border closure and the arrests of refugees in Manipur, but had yet to receive a response as of Tuesday evening.

According to Chin civil society organizations, around 60,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Chin state, while some 50,000 others have fled across the border to Mizoram and Manipur states in India.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

Dainik Dinkal suspended operations on February 20 after the Bangladesh Press Council, a quasi-judicial, government-funded body headed by a former High Court judge, rejected its appeal against a government shutdown order, Biswas told CPJ.

“The shutdown of Dainik Dinkal is a blatant attack on media freedom ahead of Bangladesh’s January 2024 national election,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “Closing a newspaper violates the democratic principles purportedly espoused by the Awami League-led government, and we call on the Bangladesh Press Council to review its order and uphold the free flow of information.”  

The district administration in the capital, Dhaka, accused Dainik Dinkal on December 26 of violating local law on grounds that its publisher was a convicted criminal, but the publisher named in the order resigned the post in 2016, Biswas said.

Biswas told CPJ that the newspaper had filed documentation before the Press Council’s ruling that Tarique Rahman, acting chair of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was no longer Dainik Dinkal’s publisher. Rahman has been convicted of several criminal and money laundering charges, and lives overseas.  

Dainik Dinkal covers BNP activities and has frequently criticized the ruling Awami League party, including the arrests of BNP politicians and supporters in what rights groups have characterized as a crackdown ahead of elections next year. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the polls will be “fair and free.”

CPJ emailed Mohammad Mominur Rahman, the Dhaka deputy commissioner who filed the government order, and Mohammed Nizamul Huq Nasim, head of the Bangladesh Press Council and its three-member appeal board, but did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

Cambodia is scheduled to hold a general election on July 23 that observers say the ruling Cambodian People’s Party has already stacked in its favor through a number of actions targeting the main opposition Candlelight Party.

The announcement that the plug had been pulled on Voice of Democracy broadcasts after more than 20 years of reporting on abuses of power and corruption in Cambodia elicited an immediate reaction from observers who said the odds that Prime Minister Hun Sen will win another five-year term are even greater with no unbiased source of news left in the nation.

The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh said it was “deeply troubled” by the news that the government had closed down one of the few remaining outlets providing “objective, fact-based reporting on issues that serve the interests of the Cambodian people.”

“A free and independent press plays a critical role in a functioning democracy, providing the public and decision-makers with facts and holding governments to account,” the embassy said in a statement, urging the government to revisit its decision.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a briefing in Washington that the decision “is particularly troubling due to the chilling impact it will have on freedom of expression and on access to information ahead of the national elections in July.”

The European Union delegation in Cambodia issued a statement along with the embassies of Belgium, the Czech republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Poland and Portugal expressing “deep concern” over the move.

“This decision seriously undermines media freedom and pluralism, which are essential for any open and free society,” it said.

“Access of information and freedom of speech are basic tenets of a democratic society and the foundation for free and fair elections,” the statement added, noting that such rights are enshrined in Cambodia’s Constitution and should be protected.

Frustration palpable

Hun Sen’s decision to shut down the Voice of Democracy followed a Feb. 9 report in which it quoted CPP spokesperson Phay Siphan as saying that Hun Sen’s son, Hun Manet, had approved a budget contribution of U.S.$100,000 to support Turkey in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that killed more than 36,000 people there and in neighboring Syria. 

Phay Siphan dismissed claims that Hun Manet had overreached his authority, saying his order was “consistent” with normal government procedures because Hun Sen was absent at the time of the approval.

On Saturday, Hun Manet denied the report and Hun Sen demanded that the Voice of Democracy issue an apology within 24 hours for “publishing false claims.” The following day, the media group informed the Ministry of Information that its reporting was based on Phay Siphan’s comments and asked Hun Sen for leniency, but the prime minister refused and on Monday morning ordered that its broadcast license be revoked for spreading “slanderous” information.

The frustration in Voice of Democracy’s newsroom was palpable on Monday, as police officers pushed past some 50 members of the international media and civil society groups gathered in support outside the outlet’s offices to deliver a formal letter revoking its broadcasting license. One employee wept uncontrollably after hearing that the office was shutting down.

Khan Leakena, a reporter who has worked with Voice of Democracy for nearly 10 years, called the government’s decision “unacceptable,” saying that closing the outlet is like “shutting down the voice of the people.”

“I want the government to reconsider shutting down VOD ... because VOD carries the voice of the people who, through their votes, are the masters of the government,” she warned.

The closure is eerily similar to those of several other independent media outlets prior to the last general election in 2018, which the CPP swept. In the lead up to the polls, a government crackdown led to the closure of 32 FM radio frequencies (including those that broadcast RFA Khmer Service content), the arrest of two former RFA journalists, and the closure of The Cambodia Daily newspaper.

‘Wiping out dissent’

Candlelight Party spokesman Kim Sour Phirith on Monday expressed regret over the government’s decision.

“[Constructive] criticism should be accepted, but if it is not warranted, a request should be made for a correction or retraction,” he said. “The pre-election political environment requires a bit more openness.”

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders went further to condemn the decision, which it called “the latest in a series of worrying moves by Hun Sen’s government to restrict press freedom.”

“This arbitrary decision sends a truly ominous message for press freedom ahead of the upcoming July elections,” the group said, calling for “the immediate reinstatement of VOD and concrete steps to begin to repair the damage that has been done to Cambodia’s media landscape in recent years.”

“The order to close puts the Cambodian public’s access to information at risk now that the government has removed another obstacle along its road to wipe out dissent in the country,” the group said in a statement.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch, called the order “flimsy and absurd,” adding that it “barely masks the government’s real intent to further suppress media freedom.”

“It’s also not lost on anyone that historically, PM Hun and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party usually crack down hard on any independent voices in the advance of a national election,” he said, suggesting that the upcoming ballot “will be neither free nor fair.”

“The real losers in all of this are the people of Cambodia, who have now lost one of the last remaining independent muckraking, anti-corruption media outlets that stood up for the interests of people and communities fighting to keep their land, livelihoods, and rights against the pernicious corrupt government officials and cronies who define just about everything Hun Sen’s government does,” he said.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ranked Cambodia 142nd out of 180 countries in its 2022 World Press Freedom Index, up from 144th in 2021, citing the crackdown on independent media in the lead up to the last election.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

In one of its first moves after taking power Tuesday, Sweden's newly elected right-wing government scrapped the country's environment ministry, drawing outrage from opposition lawmakers who say the step threatens to undermine the nation's chances of meeting its climate targets.

"They don't care about our common future. Expect huge cuts in green funding."

Per Bolund, the leader of the Swedish Greens, wrote on social media that the axing of the environment ministry shows "how little this government values ​​the environment and the climate."

"This is a historic decision with devastating consequences for environmental issues," Bolund added, noting that Sweden will now be without a separate environment ministry for the first time in five decades.

Pär Holmgren, a Swedish meteorologist and member of the European Parliament, also expressed outrage on Twitter.

Following the change announced by right-wing Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, new environment minister Romina Pourmokhtari will work under the minister for energy, business, and industry, Ebba Busch.

Busch is the leader of Sweden's Christian Democrats, part of the right-wing coalition now governing the country after winning a slim majority in September's elections. The bloc includes the Sweden Democrats, a far-right xenophobic party.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that "Kristersson's government is heavily dependent on the nationalist Sweden Democrats, the only party in parliament that doesn't back the country's target of having net zero emissions by 2045."

"The four-party alliance that agreed on forming the new government last week said they would seek to lower fuel prices, partly by reducing the percentage of biofuels that has to be mixed into gas and diesel to the minimum level required by the European Union," Bloomberg noted. "That would make it more difficult to reach a target of reducing transport emissions by 70% by 2030."

Kristersson is also pushing for an expansion of nuclear power, aiming to reverse earlier efforts to dismantle the country's reactors.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Kristersson said "Sweden’s goal on electricity production would change from '100% renewable' to '100 percent fossil-free,' which leaves room for nuclear energy."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jake Johnson.

The Moscow offices of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other groups were shuttered by the Kremlin on Friday—a move that comes amid widespread condemnation of abuses and possible war crimes that have taken place during Russia's ongoing attack on Ukraine.

"Amnesty's closing down in Russia is only the latest in a long list of organizations that have been punished for defending human rights and speaking the truth to the Russian authorities," said Agnès Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, in a statement.

"You must be doing something right if the Kremlin tries to shut you up."

"In a country where scores of activists and dissidents have been imprisoned, killed, or exiled, where independent media has been smeared, blocked, or forced to self-censor, and where civil society organizations have been outlawed or liquidated," she added, "you must be doing something right if the Kremlin tries to shut you up."

Amnesty said that its representative offices were closed as well as other NGOs operating in Russia. According to the group, the Russian Ministry of Justice delisted its name from the register of the representative offices, "effectively closing it down alongside with offices of Human Rights Watch, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, and other organizations." 

Hugh Williamson, director of HRW's Europe & Central Asia division, said that while the decision was potentially "devastating," it would not impact the group's commitment to its mission.

The Russian ministry claimed its decision to shutter the operations of the various groups was "due to the discovery of violations of the current legislation of the Russian Federation."

Both Amnesty and HRW have investigated and openly condemned alleged abuses and violations of international law by Russian forces during the military campaign in Ukraine.

Like Williamson at HRW, Amnesty's Callamard said that the closures in Moscow would not stop its work.

"The authorities are deeply mistaken if they believe that by closing down our office in Moscow they will stop our work documenting and exposing human rights violations," she said. "We continue undeterred to work to ensure that people in Russia are able to enjoy their human rights without discrimination. We will redouble our efforts to expose Russia's egregious human rights violations both at home and abroad."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jon Queally.