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Residents of Phnom Penh’s Prince Central Plaza condominium complex provide their samples for Covid-19 testing on the evening of February 23, 2021. (Supplied)

‘One Confirmed Case’: Inside a Monthlong Covid-19 Building Lockdown

Tenants of a Phnom Penh condominium complex spoke of daily life and frustrations during a monthlong Covid-19 lockdown, just as restrictions were lifted late Friday for most of the 800 people stuck inside. One floor remains locked down following a positive test two weeks ago.

Phnom Penh’s Riverside area in 2019. (tjabeljan/Creative Commons)

Opinion: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports Case for Decriminalizing Sex Work

Imagine trying to trace a cluster of Covid-19 cases centered around sex workers and expecting them to report themselves to authorities for testing. Under current policies, there is zero incentive for sex workers to comply. This is why decriminalization is the answer.

Cambodian journalists cover in an event in Phnom Penh. (Chorn Chanren/VOD)

Opinion: Women’s Challenges in Newsrooms Are Going Unreported

In recognition of International Women’s Day, we gathered our own experiences, and the perspectives of several other women and men in newsrooms, to open a discussion about equity in journalism — whether the issues are about newsroom culture or punishable by law.

A Covid-19 patient in the Phnom Penh Quarantine Center holds a bag of three medications in early March 2021. (Supplied)

Dismissed Drug, Poor Care? Concerns Raised After Covid-19 Center Death

Covid-19 patients in Cambodia have been treated with hydroxychloroquine, a health official said, even though medical researchers last year dismissed the drug as a treatment for Covid-19, and the WHO this week said it should not be used to prevent or treat coronavirus.

Environment Ministry spokesperson Neth Pheaktra shows confiscated chainsaws at the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary during a government-organized trip, on February 14, 2021. (Tran Techseng/VOD)

Report Connects Prey Lang Deforestation to Community Patrol Crackdown

A new report from the Prey Lang Community Network links increasing deforestation in the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary to a yearlong ban on independent patrols, as forest activists were this year again stopped from activities in the forest and conducting their annual tree-blessing ceremony.

Community fishery patrollers drive back to Kampong Kbeung village in a modified boat confiscated from illegal fishers that is now used by the patrol team. An increasing number of illegal fishers are modifying the hulls of their boats so that they can outpace the community patrol boats. (Andy Ball)

On Patrol, a Mekong Village Tackles Electric Fishing Scourge

Volunteer community patrollers along the Mekong aim to stop a rise in illegal electric fishing, which harms river ecosystems and livelihoods that rely on protected fisheries. But the sale of outlawed gear allows the dangerous practice to continue.

A map showing more than 800 hectares of sea off the coast of Preah Sihanouk province's Prey Nob district privatized in 2019 and 2020 for Canopy Sands Development and unspecified purposes. (Danielle Keeton-Olsen/VOD)

Prince-Linked Firm Pours Sand Into 400 Hectares of Bay Without Study

A company with powerful shareholders is creating a new coastline in Ream by pouring an estimated 100 million tons of sand into the Gulf of Thailand. After a year of filling, company and government officials say they’re still in the process of assessing potential environmental and social impacts.