Mr. Hun Sen, who has been in office for 32 years, has relied on brutality and intimidation to stay in power, according to rights groups. Critics say that his government is now using Mr. Trump’s words to justify a crackdown on critical news coverage before two elections, adding that the move could herald a new tactic in efforts to suppress free speech by governments in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia at the National Assembly in January. His government has long fought critical news coverage. Credit Cambodia National Assembly, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Cambodian Government Cites Trump in Threatening Foreign News Outlets

 New York Times | 1 March 2017

HONG KONG — In a sign that President Trump’s criticism of the news media may be having a ripple effect overseas, a government spokesman in Cambodia has cited the American leader in threatening to shutter foreign news outlets, including some that receive money from Washington.

The spokesman, Phay Siphan, said that foreign news groups, including the United States-financed Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, should “reconsider” how they broadcast — or risk a government response if their reports are deemed to spread disinformation or threaten peace and stability.

The White House decision to bar several news outlets, including The New York Times, CNN and Politico, from a briefing last week, Mr. Phay Siphan said in a Facebook post on Saturday, “sends a clear message” that Mr. Trump “sees that news broadcast by those media outlets does not reflect the truth, which is the responsibility of professional journalists.”

“Freedom of expression,” he wrote, “is subject to the law and must respect the state’s power.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen echoed Mr. Phay Siphan’s remarks but stopped short of threatening to close problematic news outlets, according to a report in The Phnom Penh Post newspaper.

Mr. Hun Sen, who has been in office for 32 years, has relied on brutality and intimidation to stay in power, according to rights groups. Critics say that his government is now using Mr. Trump’s words to justify a crackdown on critical news coverage before two elections, adding that the move could herald a new tactic in efforts to suppress free speech by governments in Southeast Asia and beyond.

The Facebook comments “show pretty clearly that as soon as there are perceptions that the United States has wavered on its commitment to press freedom, then countries with authoritarian tendencies are very quick to abandon any pretense of allowing the media to operate freely,” said Shawn W. Crispin, the Bangkok-based Southeast Asia representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonpartisan advocacy group based in New York.

Mr. Crispin said he worried that Mr. Phay Siphan’s comments would “open a can of worms” in Southeast Asian countries where journalists already face official intimidation, such as Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Representatives for Voice of America and Radio Free Asia pushed back against Mr. Phay Siphan’s comments on Tuesday.

“For decades, Voice of America has been a model of the very American bedrock of values of a free and independent press,” Amanda Bennett, the broadcaster’s director, said in an email. “Those are the principles we have long lived and worked by especially in places around the world where those values are under attack.”

Rohit Mahajan, the director of public affairs for Radio Free Asia, said that the organization planned to “continue bringing the people of Cambodia independent, credible and honest journalism.”

“The government’s efforts to deter and discourage R.F.A. and our esteemed media colleagues only further underscore the need for free press in Cambodia,” Mr. Mahajan said in an email.

He said that Radio Free Asia broadcasts in local languages via radio, internet and sometimes television in six countries: Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam. But he said it had accredited news operations in Cambodia, where it has 25 reporters, as well as in Hong Kong and in Myanmar.