Reporter beaten for story on logging

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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Cambodian military police said they were looking for three men, including a former police officer, suspected in the beating of a journalist.

It's the third incident this month of assaults on journalists writing about illegal logging in the remote northeastern province of Ratanakkiri, The Phnom Penh Post reported Thursday.

Ek Sokunthy, a 42-year-old journalist for the weekly newspaper Ta Prum, said he was beaten on the head and body Tuesday with a pistol and wooden stick in his home in the district of Andong Meas. His wife was pushed to the floor.

Sokunthy's editor, Phum Chesda, said the journalist had written a story about illegal logging last month. Afterward, the reporter received up to three death threats from military and provincial police, said the editor.

Maj. Kim Vann of the province's military police said a former Andong Meas police officer, Nget Senghorn, and two other local residents were suspects in the beating. They are believed to have fled the area.

Earlier this month, journalist Hang Serei Oudom was found in the truck of his car bludgeoned to death with an ax. In another incident, a group of journalists photographing illegal timber storage had their motorcycles damaged.