Political Rights and Civil Liberties Cambodia's 1998 elections were neither free nor fair. The campaign was held in a climate of violence due to the government's failure to investigate dozens of political killings. Hun Sen wielded his near monopoly over the civil service, local administration, military police, and Khmer-language media to a decisive advantage, and the CCP used intimidation and violence to purge numerous political rivals at the national and local levels. Authorities denied opposition parties access to broadcast media, disrupted some opposition rallies, and banned political demonstrations in Phnom Penh during the official election campaign. Politicians have deliberately kept institutions weak, and the rudimentary judiciary is not independent.
Prisons are dangerously overcrowded and unsanitary, and inmates are mistreated.
In April, UN officials reported evidence of 50 new political killings, in addition to the 41 killings reported following the 1997 coup. Security forces routinely harass and intimidate nongovernmental human rights activists. Many of the country's private newspapers closed after the coup. While some reopened, the press operates under severe pressure. Journalists are routinely harassed, threatened, and attacked, and there have been no convictions in the cases of at least four journalists murdered since 1993.