A Cambodian Senate statement has decried an article published by media outlet The Nation Thailand’, saying the piece “not only distorts the truth but also betrays a lack of understanding — or deliberate misrepresentation — of the official proceedings and documents of the IPU Assembly”.
In a press statement on October 29, the spokesperson said that the outlet’s article entitled “Khuon Sudary outpaces Wan Muhamad Noor Matha in Hungary for peace agreement discussions”, published on October 29, “deliberately twisted its purpose to mislead readers”.
Khuon Sudary, president of Cambodia’s National Assembly, attended the 151st Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, from October 19-23.
In the article, The Nation claimed that Thai Parliament speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha successfully introducing a resolution on the “Management of Scammers and Transnational Organised Crime”, which was adopted as an emergency item on the IPU agenda for the first time.
It said “Thailand’s resolution” was directly related to Cambodia which was under pressure from major powers due to alleged fraudulent activities and money laundering.
The senate spokesperson refuted the claim that it was “Thailand’s resolution”.
“It is regrettable that The Nation once again referred to the recently adopted IPU resolution as a ‘Thai resolution’. In reality, the resolution on Parliamentary Action against Transnational Crimes, Cybercrimes, and Hybrid Threats to Democracy and Human Security was jointly sponsored by several countries, including Thailand, Argentina, Chile, Poland and Sweden, with the endorsement of two regional groupings,” said the Senate statement.
The article, which was published without a byline, claimed that throughout the IPU meeting, Cambodia attempted to discreetly block the resolution, but failed.
The statement described the content of the resolution as “global, not bilateral”, and noted that Cambodia’s delegation had actively participated in the drafting process to ensure that the resolution would serve all countries of the world.
“At this point, all the countries that participated in the drafting, including Cambodia, can clearly recognise the malicious intent behind The Nation‘s distorted message,” it said.
“Such false interpretation of the document suggests that the author either failed to grasp the official text of the resolution or deliberately twisted its purpose to mislead readers — raising doubts about whether The Nation’s reporting results from a poor command of English or a wilful intent to distort the facts,” it added.
The Thai media also alleged that Cambodian parliamentary representatives tried to meet with Martin Chungong, IPU secretary-general, to request bilateral discussions with Thailand regarding the Thai-Cambodian dispute, but then postponed it, despite the willingness of Chungong to facilitate it.
“That meeting was indeed held, focusing on enhancing cooperation between the IPU and the Cambodian Parliament and addressing the negative impact of fake news and media distortion — precisely the kind of irresponsible reporting that The Nation continues to publish. For the record, the Cambodian delegation never proposed any meeting with the Thai delegation, as there was nothing to discuss and no mandate to engage in such talks,” explained that statement.
It also noted that the author of the article appeared to be unhappy with the fact that a Cambodian delegation visited Hungary before their Thai counterparts.
“Interestingly, Cambodia coordinated its visit to Hungary just one day before Thailand’s planned trip. The Cambodian delegation might have been part of the same group that attended the IPU conference. The reason for Cambodia’s visit before Thailand’s is not clear, and the Thai delegation and the King Prajadhipok’s Institute are still unaware of the rationale behind it,” reported the article.
It also made much of a breakfast meeting between Sudary and Marta Matrai, first deputy speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly, before she ended her visit to Hungary on October 28.
The Senate statement warned that misinformation spread by the Thai media undermines the values of truth, dialogue and peace that both Cambodia and Thailand claim to uphold.
“Cambodia values a free and responsible press, but freedom of the press does not mean freedom to fabricate. The Delegation of the Kingdom of Cambodia reaffirms its commitment to the truth, to mutual respect, and to regional peace and cooperation,” it said.
