BANTEAY MEANCHEY: Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered the police to arrest a person who posted an intimidating video related to Covid-19 on social media, which the Prime Minister said was false and caused fear to the public. He said, "There is no shortage of prisons for such people" and that there must be measures taken to respond quickly to this incident.
Speaking on National Fish Day in Banteay Meanchey province on Friday morning, 1 July, Prime Minister Hun Sen said that disseminating false information and polluting society in this manner is not a right of freedom of expression and will lead to immediate arrest.
"Post one, catch one. Post two, catch two because this story is not a joke!" he said.
The false information that the Prime Minister spoke of refers to a video posted on the social media site, TikTok, which showed people who had died in Koh Kong province several months ago but was reposted to make it look like the deaths were in relation to the new cases of Covid-19 found in Cambodia, with the aim of causing fear among the public.
The Prime Minister said that people should not be so free to bring suffering upon themselves because of such things.
He said, "If you do not [post such fake news], would [you die] of a lightning [strike]? What’s the use of posting such things if not to just create chaos. Take the story from Koh Kong and broadcast it in Tboung Khmum. [The person] lives in Tboung Khmum, but used a story from Koh Kong. If you do not catch [them now], [they] will take the story somewhere else [and post about it] forever. So no, now if [you] want to sleep in prison, I invite you to do it again, there is no shortage of prison cells. Do not say that Mr. Hun Sen [puts people] in prison [just for anything]! Since you [commit crimes], if not imprisonment, then what?”
LICADHO Vice President, Am Sam Ath, told EAC News that he does not support the dissemination of false information that harms society, and that this was not a right to freedom of expression. He said that the right to freedom of expression must be exercised by ethics and criticism that builds and improves.
“Expressing information with factual information is something we support and encourage, but we do not support individuals who have malicious ideas or spread information with misrepresentation that is confusing, we do not support it," he added.
Cambodia found new cases of Covid-19 on 28 June after 52 days of no recorded cases. Prime Minister Hun Sen sent an urgent voice message on the night of 28 June urging people to take precautionary measures and get vaccinated to prevent a large-scale spread of Covid-19 within the community again.
The Chairman of the Commission for Covid-19 Vaccination, Dr. Or Vandine, has urged all citizens who have a three-month gap from their last Covid-19 vaccine to go and get the third, fourth or fifth booster shots. She said there no longer be a distinction between different types of vaccination cards among those who were previously vaccinated by military doctors or civil doctors, so members of the public can use their cards to go and get vaccinated at any site they wish.
She said the Covid-19 vaccine boosts the immune system of both individuals and the community as a whole, helping to prevent the possibility of a Covid-19 outbreak from reoccurring in Cambodia. A failure to take the booster doses, however, will lower the body's immunity, especially when leaving the gap between vaccines for too long.
