Daily publishers banned from leaving country:

KT/Chor Sokunthea

The General Department of Taxation yesterday asked immigration police to prevent the publishers of the Cambodia Daily newspaper from leaving the country while the paper still owes about $6 million in back taxes.

The paper ceased operations yesterday after a 24-year run, claiming the government was attacking free press by issuing the arbitrary tax bill and giving the paper a 30-day deadline to pay up or face assets seizure and closure.

“As we finished the last paper last night, there was an outpouring of encouragement from Cambodians and people around the globe, who are so sorry to see the Daily close,” Jodie DeJonge, editor-in chief of the paper, claimed via email yesterday.

“We’re sorry too,” she added. “We wanted to continue to bring independent news to the people for many years to come.”

On Sunday, the paper’s owner and publisher issued a statement confirming the paper would not be paying the tax bill and would be closing.


The last issue of the Cambodia Daily. KT/Chor Sokunthea
“The power to tax is the power to destroy,” the paper’s statement said. “As a result of extra-legal threats by the government to close the Daily, freeze its accounts and prosecute the new owner for the actions of the previous owner, The Bernard Krisher Jimusho Co. is unable to operate The Cambodia Daily newspaper.”

The firm behind the paper, owned by Deborah Krisher-Steele, purchased the assets of the Cambodia Daily in April from Bernard Krisher.

The paper’s general manager Douglas Steele resides in the country, while Ms Krisher-Steele is based in Japan.

Kong Vibol, director-general of the General Department of Taxation, issued a letter yesterday asking the General Immigration Department to prevent both Ms Krisher-Steele and Mr Steele from leaving the country.


Empty reporter seats at the Daily office. KT/Chor Sokunthea
“[The] General Department of Taxation has asked for cooperation from the General Immigration Department to prevent the departure from Cambodia by Deborah Krisher Steele and Douglas Eric Steele in order to push these two people to pay their debts to the state,” Mr Vibol said in the letter.

Photos and passports of Ms Krisher-Steele and Mr Steele were also attached to the letter.

Neither Ms Krisher-Steele nor Mr Steele could be reached for comment yesterday.

The government has in the past few weeks attacked the Cambodia Daily newspaper over unpaid taxes, kicked the National Democratic Institute out of the country and shut down multiple radio stations renting airtime to Radio Free Asia and Voice of America.

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5081551/dai ... g-country/

The Post's version. The or else becomes an and.
http://m.phnompenhpost.com/national/dai ... ng-country

Just took an international flight from Phnom Penh this morning. In big black letters on multiple pieces of paper inside the departure passport control desks was the name Douglas Steele along with what was probably his passport number. Looks like they have him covered at the airport.

Court date set for Tax Department’s defamation case against Cambodia Daily deputy publisher
29 December 2017
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has set a March 22 trial date for a public defamation case filed by the Tax Department against Cambodia Daily deputy publisher Deborah Krisher-Steele, which was filed by the Tax Department.

The case relates to a letter to Kong Vibol, the director-general of the Tax Department, from Krisher-Steele after a leaked copy of the paper’s $6.3 million tax bill appeared on Fresh News, prompting her to call the release of a confidential document a breach of privacy laws. After the Daily was shuttered in September, the Tax Department filed the case against Krisher-Steele.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/c ... -publisher

Cambodia Daily publisher's defamation trial begins
22 March 2018
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday morning opened proceedings in the defamation trial against the deputy publisher of The Cambodia Daily, but deferred its conclusion after an hour-long hearing brought up procedural issues relating to translations and a court summons in the case brought by the country's Tax Department.

Deborah Krisher-Steele, deputy publisher of the now-shuttered newspaper, was sued by the Tax Department last September. The department accused Krisher-Steele of leaking a confidential tax document to the media and saying the tax audit of the Daily was politically motivated.

The newspaper stopped publishing a month after it was served a $6.3 million tax bill, which it was given 30 days to pay, with the issue escalating into a public fight between the Daily and the Tax Department, following the leak of a document to government mouthpiece Fresh News.

The trial, which Krisher-Steele did not attend, started with defence lawyer Ham Sunrith saying that his client had not received a summons for the case. But Prosecutor Keo Sokunthea insisted that it had been delivered to the defendant, with Judge Seng Leang siding with the prosecutor and allowing the proceedings to continue.

The court adjourned the hearing until April 12 because Krisher-Steele’s statement, provided by the defence, had not been translated by official translators. Judge Leang gave her lawyers until then to re-submit the translated statement.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... ial-begins

meh, plenty of little boats go to Laos upriver from Steung Treng,
sometimes people accidentally lose their passports and go to Vientiane, they get fined $400-$1000 and get a new passport.

I am living in Thailand but as an Australian citizen if I was still living in Sydney I would be absolutely livid that my government
would be spending my tax dollars to give these goons $67.7 million in aid. They are no better than the Mafia.
Rewarding a government that is smothering democracy. WTF ?

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:46 am cant get blood from a rock

Also cannot get blood from steele

Quote ] Neither Ms Krisher-Steele nor Mr Steele could be reached for comment yesterday.

obelisks wrote: ↑Fri Mar 23, 2018 2:58 pm I am living in Thailand but as an Australian citizen if I was still living in Sydney I would be absolutely livid that my government
would be spending my tax dollars to give these goons $67.7 million in aid. They are no better than the Mafia.
Rewarding a government that is smothering democracy. WTF ?

Your own government is way more fucked up than anything in Cambodia.

Cambodia has a future...Australia? Meh.

Just see how many Australians have made Cambodia their home...and I don't mean illiterate, aggressive paedos, I mean decent, qualified people who prefer this country to a nanny-state run by opportunistic, crooked fools.

Why are you living in Thailand if Australia is so fantastic? You know the answer.