“Mr. Tri’s murder is tragic and cannot go unpunished,” said CCIM Executive Director Pa Nguon Teang. “We must bring an end to impunity for those who commit violence against journalists, and we must do it now, starting with Mr. Tri.”
According to reports by a CCIM citizen journalist in the area, Tri was shot to death outside of his car on Tuol Punley hill in Pum Ksem Kang Krow village around 1 a.m. Sunday while he was trying to photograph vehicles transporting illegal luxury wood. A Lexus 470 without license plates was found overturned near Tri’s vehicle, and two occupants of the Lexus reportedly fled the scene. It is currently unclear what role the occupants of the Lexus may have played in the journalist’s death.
Tri is the 13th journalist to be killed in the line of duty since Cambodia’s first democratic elections in 1993, and his death bears a disturbing resemblance to the 2012 murder in Ratanakiri province of Heng Serei Oudom, who was known for his reporting on illegal logging activities.
To date, no one has been convicted for the murder of Oudom or any of the other journalists killed in Cambodia over the last 11 years.
WHAT OTHER IFEX MEMBERS ARE SAYING
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The night of the killing, Taing Try was investigating the illegal transportation of luxury wood with five other journalists. The journalists had allegedly found that 23 oxcarts were transporting illegal timber from Mondulkiri Province to Memut District in Kampong Cham Province then to Vietnam.
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The assailant, who was identified in news reports as the owner of the logs, attempted to drive away from the scene, but was forced to flee on foot after his vehicle crashed, according to news reports. There were conflicting reports about whether the killer verbally confronted Try before shooting the journalist.
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“The fact that some of the people running this lucrative trafficking in timber hold senior positions must not afford them any kind of immunity,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk. “If the three detained suspects really were involved in this shocking murder, we hope they will be tried like anyone else.”