To gauge the impacts of COVID-19 on the journalism profession and journalists’ livelihoods, CamboJA with the support from American Center for International Labor Solidarity conducted a study survey that covers 28 media outlets in Phnom Penh, and 63 respondents (14 women) in August 2020. The survey shows that more than half (58 percent) of surveyed journalists fear legal accusations or arrests related to reporting COVID-19 news. The findings also suggest that some journalists always censor when they report the information related to COVID-19 (42 percent). Concern among journalists about contracting COVID-19 are relatively high, at 41.5 percent. About three-quarters (74.6 percent) of surveyed journalists have decreased in-person contacts during information gathering during the pandemic.
Another challenge is the difficulty in getting information related to COVID-19 from the Ministry of Health (say 60.3 percent).