FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Banned film screens globally on fourth anniversary of Chut Wutty murder

N1M – NOT1MORE News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Banned film screens globally on fourth anniversary of Chut Wutty murder

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – April 24, 2016 – N1M, Not1More, a global support and protection network for threatened environmental defenders, will a hold a day of free global screenings of I am Chut Wutty, a banned documentary about slain Cambodian forestry activist Chut Wutty. The screenings will be held April 26, 2016, the fourth anniversary of the activist’s murder by Cambodian police.

The film will be available for free on the film’s Facebook page, I AM CHUT WUTTY, for 24 hours beginning April 26. A Khmer-language version of the film has already reached 250,000 views on Facebook since Friday.

Last week, the Cambodian government banned public screening of the film. Despite the ban, venues in Cambodia have continued with private showings of the film, which follows the activist in his last months of life as he struggles to protect Cambodia’s Prey Long forest from loggers and corrupt government officials who turn a blind eye to the plunder.

Community groups, workplaces and environmental activists are holding 'solidarity screenings' from Iceland to Guinea-Bissau, and from the UK to Bangkok.

“Chut Wutty was a prominent activist and director of the Natural Resources Protection Group,” said Fran Lambrick, director of I am Chut Wutty. “His life work was to defend the rights of forest communities and speak out against the rampant deforestation that is destroying Cambodia’s natural heritage.”

“We want to keep his words and battle alive.”

On April 26, 2012, Wutty was guiding two journalists through Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains on the last day of a three-day fact finding mission. After the three stopped at an illegal yellow vine site in Koh Kong province and began taking photos, two men prohibited Wutty’s group from leaving. Minutes later, three police officers arrived with AK-47s. After forcibly confiscating the group’s cameras, a verbal scuffle ensued between the officers and Wutty. Shots rang out and one of the officers fatally shot Wutty through the door of his car. No one has been held accountable for his murder.

Watch the film, I am Chut Wutty.

N1M was founded in honor of Chut Wutty on April 19, 2016. The network will support front line activists and local communities defending their natural resources from land-grabbing, agri-business, mining, industrial developments and loggers in the most dangerous countries on earth.

About N1M

N1M is a global support and protection network for environmental defenders. Working in collaboration with leading environmental, human rights, civil and legal organizations including the Universal Rights Group, Global Witness, Front Line Defenders, Environmental Investigation Agency and the Center for International Environmental Law, the network’s goal is to stop violence against environmental defenders. N1M is a community interest company registered in Scotland, with 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsorship in the U.S. Learn more about the defenders at not1more.org.

Contact Information:

Olesia Plokhii

N1M Media Director

617.997.8779

oplokhii@gmail.com