Cambodia Daily

The Cambodia Daily is a subsidiary of Yugen Kaisha Bernard Krisher Jimushu, a Japanese LLC. Bernard Krisher started the paper in 1993 as part of a philanthropic project that included supplying Cambodia with mosquito nets, schools, a hospital and more. Although the Cambodia Daily states that it has always been a private company and has never received public funding, a non-profit registry introduces it as an “ongoing non-profit newspaper”, based on data provided by the two organizations set up by Bernard Krisher, the owner and publisher of The Cambodia Daily.

His daughter, Deborah Krisher-Steele, is listed as Deputy Publisher of The Cambodia Daily. She is also the vice-chair of the 501c3 non-profit organization World Assistance for Cambodia.

On September 4th 2017, The Cambodia Daily announced its own closure for the first time in 24 years and 15 days in Cambodia. The announcement of cease of operation came one month after document from the General Department of Taxation was leaked online, revealing a massive disputed $6.3 million tax bill, and less than two weeks after PM Hun Sen described the publishers as “thieves” and told them to either pay the tax or “pack up and go”. In its press statement, The Cambodia Daily said the power to tax is the power to destroy, adding that the Cambodian government has destroyed a special and singular part of Cambodia’s free press. The allegations of theft are unfounded and defamatory and the campaign of leaks is unprofessional and unlawful, said the statement.