phnom penh



STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 18, 2021 • 3 min read

Urban planning The Anakut podcast: What comes next for rapidly changing Phnom Penh?

By Andrew Haffner • Aug 18, 2021
Roughly doubling in size and population over the past decade, Phnom Penh is a rapidly changing city. What the next 10 years hold is hard to predict, but we've brought on Ngo Natharoun, head of the Center for Khmer Studies, and Michael Waibel, lead of the Build4People urbanism project, to offer their insights

Jul 27, 2021 • 4 min read
Mini-documentary

Pushed to the streets: Phnom Penh’s sex workers during Covid-19

As KTVs and massage parlours continue to be interrupted, sex workers in Phnom Penh say they’re increasingly desperate for clients as debt piles up. With limited ability to change jobs and scant government aid, many have turned to the streets to find customers
By Kiana Duncan and Ines Sothea • Jul 27, 2021

Jun 04, 2021 • 12 min read
History

Inside the decrepit Hotel Renakse, Cambodia’s free press was reborn

Today the crumbling Hotel Renakse sits empty in the shadow of Phnom Penh's Royal Palace, being slowly reclaimed by nature. But in the early 1990s, the hotel played host to three decisive moments in the reintroduction of press freedom to Cambodia
By Alastair McCready • Jun 04, 2021

May 20, 2021 • 8 min read
Opinion

‘Phnom Penh should be a city designed for humans, not cars’

Phnom Penh is at a development crossroads – not yet carved up by major expressways, but with the potential to move in that direction. Future Forum researcher Aronsakda Ses urges authorities to stop and consider a more human-focused urban plan, before it's too late
By Ses Aronsakda • May 20, 2021

May 18, 2021 • 4 min read
History

The evolution of Phnom Penh, as seen through maps

The capital’s growth has been centuries in the making. In this compilation sourced from libraries and other digitised collections, cartographers mapped the expansion of the city from a riverside settlement to a modern metropolis
By Andrew Haffner • May 18, 2021

May 11, 2021 • 11 min read
History

‘I did not believe Angkar’: Soc Sinan’s story of Khmer Rouge defiance

When the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, they soon instructed citizens to vacate the capital. As streams of people began leaving on foot, Soc Sinan stayed in her apartment, where she would be discovered by communist soldiers three days later
By Jim Laurie • May 11, 2021

Apr 26, 2021 • 10 min read
Covid-19

‘The poor won’t survive’: Lockdown hits Phnom Penh’s hand-to-mouth workers

Cambodia had avoided the worst health effects of the pandemic until recent months. Now, with Phnom Penh under an ever-stricter lockdown as cases spiral, it's the capital's thousands of informal, hand-to-mouth workers who are suffering as they are locked inside
By Andrew Haffner and and Borin Sopheavuthtey • Apr 26, 2021

Apr 15, 2021 • 2 min read
Covid-19

Cambodia’s Hun Sen says country on ‘brink of death’ from Covid surge

Despite avoiding mass any mass outbreaks in 2020, a recent uptick in Covid-19 cases have put Cambodia "on the brink of death", its strongman premier Hun Sen has warned, as the country imposed lockdowns in the capital Phnom Penh and a nearby city.
By Agence France-Presse • Apr 15, 2021

Apr 02, 2021 • 14 min read
Sex work

Criminals or victims? Cambodia’s sex workers suffer under legal limbo

In a country rife with anti-trafficking efforts, the Cambodian government’s failure to clearly define and distinguish between prostitution and trafficking creates loose standards for police and NGOs targeting sex workers, worsening exploitation in unsafe working conditions
By Kiana Duncan • Apr 02, 2021