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Attacked
February 8
Ek Mongkol, FM Radio 90, ATTACKED
Mongkol, the host of two call-in music request programs and a biweekly political commentary show on FM Radio 90, was shot shortly after leaving work. He was riding a motorcycle in downtown Phnom Penh when two men on another motorcyle approached from behind and opened fire, striking him twice in the chest and once in the neck. He was evacuated to a Bangkok hospital, where doctors expected him to make a full recovery. A member of the royalist FUNCINPEC party, which owns FM Radio 90, Mongkol had made statements prior to the shooting decrying what he termed Vietnamese aggression along Cambodia's eastern border. He also had been critical of official corruption in Cambodia. Some local journalists blamed the shooting on FUNCINPEC's pro-Vietnam coalition partner, the Cambodian People's Party (CPP). Others pointed out that Mongkol was widely known to have engaged female callers in flirtatious on-air banter, leading some to speculate that he may have been shot by a jealous husband or boyfriend.
For more information contact asiaweb@cpj.org