CAMBODIAN Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the closure of one of the country’s last remaining independent media outlets today for allegedly slandering his son.

Voice of Democracy (VOD) radio published a story on its website saying that Lieutenant General Hun Manet had signed off a $100,000 (£82,000) official donation to earthquake relief efforts on his father’s behalf.

The prime minister said that the article had misinterpreted the facts and that only he has the authority to make decisions on foreign aid.

VoD acknowledged making a mistake, but it was still shut down by the PM, who has ruled Cambodia for 38 years.

The station has reported extensively on issues such as land grabbing and criminal gangs operating with near impunity in carrying out online scams, with people, especially foreigners, tricked into working in conditions approaching slavery.

The Information Ministry said that VoD’s licence was being revoked “because it has seriously violated the ethics of professional journalism and did not make a correction according to the press law, affecting the honour and prestige of the government.”

Human Rights Watch Asia director Phil Robertson said that VoD had been “living on borrowed time for a while.”

“This flimsy and absurd decision barely masks the government’s real intent to further suppress media freedom,” he said.

Mr Robertson added that the government usually cracks down hard on any independent voices in the run-up to a national election.

“Going after VoD is a good indication that the scheduled July 23 poll will be neither free nor fair,” he said.

Hun Manet, who head the Cambodian army, has been nominated by his father’s People’s Party to succeed him when he steps down.