The acquisition of the Phnom Penh Post by a Malaysian businessman made the newsroom “apprehensive” and “concerned” according to one of the paper’s former journalists, Erin Handley.

“There were fears for years that we’d be sold to someone politically well-connected to neutralise us, and we weren’t sure if the recent sale was an attempt to do that,” she said.

Handley was a sub-editor at Cambodian daily paper, the Phnom Penh Post, before its sale to Asia PR-owner Sivakumar Ganapathy and was one of 13 members of staff that left the paper following the dismissal of the its editor-in-chief, Kay Kimsong.