Earth Journalism Network and SEJ Petition Cambodia To Investigate Journalist's Murder

SEJ has signed onto a letter/petition calling for an investigation into the recent murder of Cambodian journalist Hang Serei Oudom, a reporter with the local newspaper Vorakchun Khmer Daily. Oudom had reportedly been covering illegal logging activities. In a recent story Oudum had implicated the son of a military commander in the alleged illegal logging activities. He went missing Sept. 9 and was found dead Sept. 11 with several axe blows to the head, according to the International Press Institute.

Apparently, there has been an arrest, but no official declaration.

Oudom's death comes months after the death of Chut Wutty of the Phnom Penh-based environmental watchdog, National Resource Protection Group, who was allegedly murdered by a member of the Cambodian military. Wutty had accompanied journalists from the Cambodia Daily newspaper to witness large scale deforestation and illegal rosewood smuggling in the southwestern province of Koh Kong, according to reports.

You can read the letter and sign the petition here.

Also, read more at Andrew Revkin’s blog: Critics Press Cambodia to Fight Violence on its Forest Frontier.