Beehive Radio

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Beehive Radio is a Phnom Penh, Cambodia, radio station on 105 FM. It is owned and run by independent journalist Mam Sonando and is known as one of Cambodia’s few independent news outlets.

The station covers a wide range of topics, including human rights, democracy, civil society, HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, human trafficking, women’s rights and gender equality, government transparency, development, labor rights, the environment, the rule of law, and electoral education and monitoring. It also airs programs from Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.

Mam Sonando, a French-Cambodian, returned to Cambodia in 1995 and obtained a broadcasting license for Beehive Radio, which began on August 6, 1996. He even started a political party, the Beehive Democratic Society Party, and ran in the 1998 general election, but did not win. After that, he dissolved the party and continued Beehive Radio as an independent broadcaster.

By 2012, Sonando had been arrested three times because of his broadcasts. In 2003, during the Phnom Penh riots, a caller claimed wrongly that Cambodian embassy officials were killed in Bangkok. On January 31, 2003, Sonando was arrested for relaying false information, incitement, and related charges, but he was released on bail on February 11 and was never brought to trial.

In October 2005, he was arrested again after reporting on Prime Minister Hun Sen’s treaty with Vietnam. He faced charges of criminal defamation, disseminating false information, and incitement. The charges were dropped in January 2006.

On July 15, 2012, he was arrested once more over protests against evictions for a new rubber plantation in Kratié Province, facing charges of insurrection and inciting people to take up weapons against the state. The arrest drew strong domestic and international criticism, with rights groups and journalists demanding his release.

International organizations and Cambodian rights groups have spoken out against the arrests. The CPJ urged his immediate release, noting a history of using legal charges to silence criticism. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also condemned the actions, with Amnesty naming Sonando a prisoner of conscience. Beehive Radio remains a platform for independent voices in Cambodia.