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In Cambodia, the death of a journalist highlights the secrecy shrouding environmental crimes
In the Cambodian countryside, local journalists are trying to alert the public and authorities to the illegal deforestation devouring their forests. One of them succumbed to his injuries after being shot in December 2024, while returning from a reporting trip. Forbidden Stories went to the scene to investigate the circumstances of his death.
In November 2024, Chhoeung Chheng denounced the authorities’ passivity in the face of deforestation on this plot of land to the west of the Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary. – Credit: Gerald Flynn
- Journalist Chhoeung Chheng was killed in December 2024. His videos on deforestation may have been one of the causes of his murder.
- The deforested plot he had filmed a few weeks before his death caught the eye of the authorities, who have since launched an investigation.
- Journalists who investigate the environment in Cambodia face increasing repression. Some have been jailed recently, while others have been refused entry into the country.
By Léa Peruchon and Sinorn Thang
February 20, 2025
“He wanted to protect the forest.” Chey Yeun has tears in her eyes as she points to the small altar in the room where our interview is taking place. A cremation urn, a few offerings and a photo: this is all she has left of the man with whom she shared 37 years of her life.
Two weeks earlier, on December 4, 2024, journalists Chhoeung Chheng and Moeun Ny were preparing to return home after spending the day crisscrossing the forest by motorcycle. At around 6 p.m., as the day’s last rays of sunlight skimmed the trees of the Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Cambodia, they came across a farmer named Si Loeuy, who asked them what they were doing there.
A few minutes after having set off again, they encountered the same farmer waiting for them farther along the road, laying in ambush. Armed with a homemade pistol, he fired. The bullet penetrated Chheng’s left flank, and he collapsed. The 63-year-old journalist, still conscious, was carried on a trailer converted into a makeshift stretcher to the nearest village. He was then transferred to a hospital in Siem Reap, 85 kilometers away. He succumbed to his injuries three days later.
A former soldier in the army, Chheng became a journalist in an attempt to save the forest. Like 8,000 of his colleagues, he held a press card issued by the Cambodian Ministry of Information. However, he was not paid for his work.
This is a common situation in Cambodia, where journalists live off odd jobs to supplement the meager remuneration they receive from their publishers. “They don’t get paid, and they don’t have the right skills, but they’re determined. They work with their hearts,” said Nop Vy, Director of the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA).
Chheng was illiterate. In place of writing, he would share his videos directly with the editor-in-chief of the online website Kampuchea Apivhat, a privately-owned general-interest media outlet like the hundreds of others in the country.
Chey Yeun, 69, paints a portrait of Chhoeung Chheng, to whom she was married for 37 years. A photo of the journalist rests against a cremation urn in the background. – Credit: Léa Peruchon / Forbidden Stories
Despite being the first country in Southeast Asia to set up a system of protected areas, back in 1925, Cambodia seems to be having great difficulty enforcing the law and preserving these natural spaces. On the day of his death, Chheng and his colleague Ny had gone in search of freshly cleared plots of land in the Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary, which originally covered almost 2,500 square kilometers but has been steadily eroded over the years. Forbidden Stories went there to find out what cost the journalist his life.
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Beng Per, a sanctuary in name only
The wonders of Angkor Vat are just a two-hour drive from Chheng’s village of Trapang Phloh. But here, life is different. There are no mausoleums, and even fewer tourists. Along the road, the landscape is scarred by deforestation. Abject poverty is everywhere. And then there’s the omertà. It’s clear that the Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary is now a sanctuary in name only—something Chheng was determined to denounce.
In Cambodia, covering environmental degradation is a particularly risky business, as it lifts the veil on the illegal activities of timber magnates and the corruption of the authorities.
Nowadays, almost no investigative journalists are able to report on these subjects. The flow of information therefore relies on journalists like Chheng: people who joined the field later in life, with no capabilities other than filming what they see.
“It’s dangerous for them. They’re like whistle-blowers. They see something happening illegally, they go there, and they report it to the authorities,” said Vy. “We need them.”
Approaching the nature reserve, there are neither trees nor signs to welcome visitors. Even when listening carefully, it’s hard to hear the birds singing. A mere few herons are visible, standing on the backs of emaciated buffalo. Along the road, plots have long since been stripped of their most noble trees, notably rosewood.
“It’s been cut down to be sold for furniture,” said Ny. “The small trees are felled to be burned and turned into charcoal… Cassava and cashew crops have been planted in their place.”
Over the past twenty years, almost three-quarters of Beng Per’s primary forest has been destroyed, according to an analysis by Global Forest Watch, an online platform that uses satellite images to produce its estimates.
On the day of Chheng’s murder, the two journalists ventured into the middle of the forest, three kilometers east of the main road. In a clearing, a few stumps bore witness to the vegetation that once grew there: a stark contrast to the forest’s untouched areas.
This was not the first time Chheng had visited the plot, having publicly alerted the authorities to it three weeks before his death. In a now-deleted video posted to Facebook, which we found on his phone, he denounced the inaction and even passive complicity of the environmental protection officers on site. “How could they not hear that a tractor was clearing the land?” Chheng asked the camera. He would later be called by the head of the forest rangers responsible for protecting the reserve.
Editing of two videos recorded by Chheng in November 2024 and found on his mobile phone.
Less than an hour after the shooting, the authorities allegedly seized Ny’s phone to delete all photos taken on the plot that day. Though Forbidden Stories was unable to independently verify this report, Ny believes this might have been an attempt to destroy evidence tied to Chheng’s murder.
Chheng was relentless in his work. He followed and photographed anyone who contributed to the illegal deforestation near Trapang Phloh, whether they felled a single tree or an entire hectare—even if it meant making enemies. Here, small-scale illegal loggers are everywhere. But the overwhelming majority of them only cut down trees because they have no choice.
Wood: a vital resource for Cambodian farmers
In Cambodia, almost a third of the population lives below the poverty line. Wood is often the only source of energy, especially for cooking. Along the road leading to the village of Trapang Phloh, traditional brick chimneys covered with straw dot the landscape. They mark the ovens where the reserve’s trees are turned into charcoal. One of them stands at the back of the garden of Si Loeuy, the man suspected of killing Chheng.
Like most of Trapang Phloh’s inhabitants, Loeuy and his wife live in very precarious conditions. Covered by a wooden roof, a floor of just a few square meters serves as a living room, bedroom and kitchen. Their day-to-day life consists of Loeuy looking after his cows, while his wife goes off to work in the rice fields. When they don’t have enough money to live on, the wife conceded that her husband cuts down a few trees illegally, which he then sells to local middlemen. It’s a common practice here, as the manager of the village grocery store confirms. According to him, all the locals do it.
Loeuy is currently in prison in Siem Reap, awaiting trial. His wife says she has no idea why he might have shot the journalist. According to the prosecutor of the Siem Reap provincial court, Loeuy confessed to firing the gun following a personal quarrel—an altercation triggered by an extortion attempt on Chheng’s part, according to Loeuy’s version of events. He faces up to 15 years in prison.
Forbidden Stories met with Orn Reaksmey, the local police officer who arrested Loeuy. He denied having received a complaint from him about an extortion attempt. But some locals confided that it’s not uncommon for journalists to promise not to publish their videos from the forest in exchange for a few riels, the local currency.
Some journalists leave with a small amount of wood to live on. Others receive a small sum of between 10,000 and 20,000 riels (€3.50), to pay for their food or motorcycle fuel—a sum too small to justify murder, according to Vy, the CamboJA director.
“We don’t believe he was killed because of a few coins,” he said. “Above all, the question is who gives the journalists the money, and why? It’s because they’re trying to buy them off and hide something.”
Loeuy reportedly told Chan Chamroeun, provincial coordinator of the human rights association ADHOC, that he was “very angry with Chheng because of his Facebook posts.” Those close to the journalist believe that Loeuy was commissioned to silence him. Either way, one thing is certain: this murder has left its mark on the village. Very few locals were willing to talk to us.
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Press freedom under increasing threat in Cambodia
With Chheng’s colleague Ny, Forbidden Stories returned to the plot he and Chheng had visited. A sign had appeared, reading “An investigation is underway on this land” in Khmer.
Chhoeung Chheng denounced the authorities’ passivity in the face of deforestation on this plot of land. A sign reading “An investigation is underway on this land” was planted here after his death, according to his colleague. – Credit: Léa Peruchon / Forbidden Stories
To find out more about the meaning of the sign, we went to the forest rangers’ base camp, where we encountered a handful of men lying in hammocks. None of them wanted to talk to us about the case. They referred us to their higher-ups, stationed 90 kilometers away.
We tracked down one of the men supposedly responsible for clearing the plot of land. His wife welcomed us in front of their house, which was perched on stilts. A tractor sat parked under the porch. The man, on the second floor, pretended to be unwell to avoid having to talk to us. Everyone seemed embarrassed by our presence.
As far as the Cambodian judicial authorities are concerned, the question of Chheng’s murder is just as delicate. After initially agreeing to meet us, the spokesman for the Siem Reap provincial prosecutor ultimately canceled, citing the ongoing investigation.
The Ministry of Information reaffirmed through its spokesperson its determination to provide assistance in the ongoing legal proceedings, so that justice can be done for Chheng’s family.
“Journalists must not extend their work beyond the boundaries and duties of journalism,” said the spokesperson. “They must cooperate with the relevant competent authorities by providing appropriate information, so that any sensitive cases being reported can be dealt with.”
Before Chheng, Taing Try was the last journalist to be killed in Cambodia. He was also investigating deforestation when he was murdered in 2014. Many of his colleagues have suffered prison sentences. This is the case for reporter Soeu Sochea, whom Forbidden Stories met. In his videos, Sochea denounces the inefficiency and corruption of local authorities in the province of Kampong Thom, in the center of the country.
In May 2024, he was imprisoned following a complaint of “incitement to commit felony and to discriminate,” lodged by none other than the local director of environmental protection.
“Before arresting me, [the authorities] called me to say that I was no match for [the timber traffickers] and that we could find a compromise,” said Sochea. “But I refused, so I was arrested.”
The Ministry of Information told Forbidden Stories that it was not aware of the case, before stressing the importance of ethical standards for journalists.
Paroled since November 2024, Sochea is determined to get back to work. “If I don’t do it, who will?” he asked.
On his phone, Soeu Sochea scrolls through videos taken in the Kampong Thom province in search of illegally deforested areas, during an interview in December 2024. – Credit: Léa Peruchon / Forbidden Stories
Gerland Flynn is also in the authorities’ crosshairs. Up until January 2025, the British reporter was one of the last to cover deforestation in Cambodia (see box).
“Press freedom in Cambodia has been steadily deteriorating since 2017, when former Prime Minister Hun Sen cracked down on independent media,” wrote Reporters Without Borders.
Local journalists remain the ultimate pillar of independent information, regardless of the cost to themselves. One of them concluded, “Today, Chheng was killed; tomorrow, it could be me.”
A British journalist blacklisted by the Cambodian authorities
In January 2025, Gerald Flynn, a correspondent for the environmental media outlet Mongabay, was prevented from entering Cambodia and sent back to Thailand, where he had just spent the weekend. The 33-year-old Briton had been living and working in Cambodia since June 2019, with a valid visa and press card. At border control, immigration officers showed him a screenshot indicating that as of November 25, 2024, he had been blacklisted.
That was just three days after France 24 broadcast a documentary on deforestation in the Cardamom Mountains Rainforest, one of the best-known forests in Cambodia. Troublingly, this is where several major companies, notably French and American, have spent millions of euros buying carbon credits to offset their ecological footprints. On paper, the area is meant to be preserved. But, using his drone, Flynn revealed the deforestation that is ravaging this forest, with large swaths being cleared.
As a result of the documentary, several activists interviewed for the story were briefly arrested. As for Flynn, he is now persona non grata in Cambodia and has been forced to find another place of residence to continue covering environmental issues. The Ministry of Information did not provide answers to our questions on this matter.