Ou, a reporter for Samleng Reas Khmer (Voice of the Cambodian People), was dragged into the street by security guards as he was distributing newspapers to vendors in the market and shot dead. The newspaper was investigating extortion in the central market of Phnom Penh, and security guards had been the target of the newspaper’s investigation. The official report of Ou’s death said he was drunk and had been killed in a dispute over a card game, but the Khmer Journalists Association maintains that he was killed because of the newspaper’s reporting. Police arrested the guard who shot Ou, but he was later released, and no charges were filed against him.