Neth Pheaktra, the spokesperson for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), that is, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, said that Loughrey has also failed to remember those who survived the regime. “But he didn’t request for official use.” “As I can see, he just took the photos from our website, which was officially launched in late January to help assist families in finding their relatives,” Nisay said. He went on to say that Loughrey did not seek approval from the museum to use the portraits and documentation that is the property of the museum. It is misrepresenting the actual history.” But the Irish artist changed them and added smile faces. “It profoundly affects the dignity of the victims because, you know, those victims had their photos taken while they faced life-threatening situation and torture. “For the museum, we can’t accept this,” he said. Hang Nisay, director of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is located on the site of S-21, strongly deplored Loughrey’s artworks, stressing that it is totally distasteful for the victims and their surviving families. “MCFA does not accept this kind of manipulation and considers this work of Matt Loughrey to seriously affect the dignity of the victims, the reality of Cambodia’s history, and in violation of the rights of the Museum as the lawful owners and custodians of these photographs,” the ministry had stated in its announcement, adding that the ministry had never been in communication with Loughrey.

The photos posted with his interview had not only been colorized but had also been digitally altered to add smiles on the faces of the victims of the camp known as S-21 during the Pol Pot regime. In an interview with Irish artist Matt Loughrey posted on VICE on April 9 and entitled “These People Were Arrested by the Khmer Rouge and Never Seen Again,” Loughrey explained that he had altered photos of prisoners of the regime’s extermination camp Tuol Sleng to revitalize their history. Within hours of the ministry issuing its warning, VICE on April 11 had taken the article off its site. This article also led the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts (MCFA) on April 11 to threaten legal action if VICE did not immediately remove the article and photos from its website.

PHNOM PENH-An article published at VICE-a news website covering politics, social issues and culture-has sparked outrage among Cambodians who viewed as morally unacceptable and contemptuous to the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime to have retouched their portraits taken before they were tortured and executed. In October, the Candlelight Party’s Son Chhay was given a large fine after being found guilty of defamation for saying that the June local elections were unfair, charging that the National Election Committee was biased in favor of the Cambodian People’s Party.Threats of legal action made by the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and an online petition circulating among Cambodians led the website to take down the story In recent years, his government has aggressively pursued legal action against its opponents, hindering their ability to operate freely, and sometimes hounding them into exile or jailing them. Hun Sen, an authoritarian ruler in a nominally democratic state, has held power for 38 years. The Cambodian People’s Party has held an iron grip on power for decades and controls almost every level of government. In last June’s local elections, the Cambodian People’s Party won 74.3% of the votes and the Candlelight Party received about 22.3%. The Candlelight Party became the unofficial successor to the Cambodia National Rescue Party. It was disbanded just months ahead of the polls by a controversial court ruling that said it had plotted the illegal overthrow of the government.Ĭambodian courts are widely believed to be under the influence of the government, and the party’s disbanding allowed the governing party to win all of the seats in the National Assembly.

Hun Sen’s party faced a much stronger challenge ahead of the 2018 election from the highly popular Cambodia National Rescue Party. “The Candlelight Party regards that the arrest and detention of Thach Setha was politically motivated and a form of real threat in order to intimidate the spirit of the Cambodian people from joining political activities with the Candlelight Party ahead of the general election in July,” it said in a statement.

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