The Cambodia Daily is an independent newspaper published six days a week in Phnom Penh. It was established to provide a foundation for a free press in Cambodia and to train a new generation of journalists.

Its founder and publisher is a veteran American journalist who covered Cambodia in the 1960s for Newsweek and saw an opportunity to help the fledgling democracy by launching a newspaper here after the U.N.-supervised elections of 1993.

Cambodia, which suffered intolerable pain and misery through the genocide by the Pol Pot regime of 1975 to 1979 that cost the lives of more than 1 million of its people, remains one of the poorest nations in the region. It is afflicted by a multitude of problems including HIV/AIDS, millions of buried land mines, a high level of malaria infection in the rural areas, and general medical shortcomings. Crime, corruption and the illegal logging of Cambodia’s forests have further hampered its development.

On the brighter side, a new generation of dedicated young Cambodians is eager to leapfrog the “lost years” of neglect and strife. These ambitious Cambodians are flocking to learn medicine, law, business administration, along with English and computer skills. They are filling the classrooms at universities, technical and cram schools, seeking an education that will help them create a happier environment for themselves and their country.

In providing unbiased news of Cambodia and the rest of the world to readers in both English and Khmer, the newspaper hopes to contribute to the country’s reconstruction and rehabilitation. We aim to create an informed public that will be best able to select, through elections, the people most qualified to realize the goals of the Cambodian people.

The newspaper is available as a daily print edition in Cambodia (circ. 5,000).

Bernard Krisher, publisher