Cambodia Daily to close due to tax impose by government

One of Cambodia's last remaining independent newspapers announced on Sunday it was closing after 24 years, the latest in a series of blows to critics of Prime Minster Hun Sen.

The Cambodia Daily said Monday's edition would be its last after it was slapped with a $6.3m tax bill which its publishers said was politically motivated.

"The power to tax is the power to destroy. And after 24 years, one month and 15 days, the Cambodian government has destroyed The Cambodia Daily, a special and singular part of Cambodia's free press," the newspaper said in a statement.

The paper blamed "extra-legal threats by the government to close the Daily, freeze its accounts and prosecute the new owner" for the closure. The announcement came hours after opposition leader Kem Sokha was arrested and accused of treason.

UCJ, UNILORIN.