Radio Free Asia (RFA) Journalist Lem Piseth has yet again fled the country to Thailand after deaths threats were made against him last month.

Since early April 2008, Lem Piseth had been investigating a drug trafficking and murder case with alleged links to high ranking officials. On April 10, 2008 Lem Piseth's daughter discovered six AK47 bullets placed in front of their rented house in Battambang. The bullets were placed at the front gate only three and a half meters from his bedroom. Later in Phnom Penh on April 13 at around 6pm, a group of eight men on motorcycles followed Lem Piseth on his motorcycle along a relatively quiet street. The group then overtook him and three to four men riding on the back turned around and threateningly pointed fingers at him. Lem Piseth turned into a busier street to evade those men.

This latest spate of threats is not the first time Lem Piseth has been a victim of intimidation.

An History of Intimidation
In January, 2008, Lem Piseth received a threatening SMS from an anonymous caller claiming to be a high ranking official and warning his family to be careful. In February, 2008, the same phone number invited Lem Piseth to meet at Chhaya Hotel in Battambang. Lem Piseth fearing for his security did not go.

On 16 June 2007, shortly after the broadcasting of his story into alleged illegal logging activities and the release of the subsequently banned Global Witness Report: Cambodia's Family Trees which contained similar allegations, Lem Piseth received a phone call from a number he did not recognize. The unidentified male caller told him that he was very insolent and asked him whether he wanted to die, because he had written and investigated the forestry industry. The man on the phone also threatened him, telling him to be careful, and that 'there will not be enough land to bury him'. The unknown caller then hung up and when Lem Piseth tried calling the number back, the phone number led to a public pay phone. Following the phone call Lem Piseth immediately fled to the Thailand-Cambodia border.

In 2005, Lem Piseth also received serious threats while covering an alleged illegal logging operation run by a relative of Prime Minister Hun Sen in Tum Ring, Kampong Thom.

A recurrent scenario in Cambodia
Further cases of threats against media and censorship of the media are discussed in LICADHO's latest report entitled 'Reading Between The Lines: How Politics, Money and Fear Control Cambodia's Media'. This report also includes the result of survey of 141 Cambodian journalists across the nation discussing corruption, threats and working conditions. From the survey 54 per cent of journalists said they had received threats as a result of a story or investigation, with 32% of those threats being physical or death threats.