Cambodia’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld the treason convictions and 14-year prison sentences of journalists Phorn Sopheap and Pheap Pheara, according to local media.

The court rejected the journalists’ final appeal in a case that rights organizations and press freedom groups have claimed criminalizes reporting. The defense had asked the court to either dismiss the case or reduce it to a lesser charge of disclosing “national defense secrets.”  Additionally, they requested the court to suspend the sentences pending a possible royal pardon.

The court delivered the decision after a brief hearing in Phnom Penh. Deputy Supreme Court Chief Taing Sunlay said that the bench had decided to uphold the appellate ruling. The Siem Reap Provincial Court had convicted the pair on December 17, 2025, in a one-day trial. Subsequently, the Court of Appeal in Battambang upheld that verdict on March 26, 2026. Under Cambodia’s Criminal Code, supplying a foreign state with information prejudicial to national defense yields seven to 15 years in prison. Their conviction and sentence had remained private until the journalists filed an appeal in February 2026.

Sopheap, 39, reported for Battambang Post TV Online, and Pheara, 41, reported for TSP 68 TV Online. The two were arrested separately on July 31, 2025, as they returned from a reporting trip in Oddar Meanchey province, along the contested border with Thailand. Prosecutors alleged that their Facebook posts disclosed Cambodian military positions. One image allegedly showed both men with Cambodian soldiers at Ta Krabei Temple (Ta Kwai in Thailand). Landmines were apparently in the background. Thai media later circulated that photograph as Bangkok accused Cambodia of newly laying mines along the frontier. Sopheap and Pheara maintained they had permission to be in the area.

The arrests came amid a wider wave of detentions targeting journalists, activists and opposition figures over social media posts related to the border conflict.

Outside the Supreme Court, Sopheap’s mother, Prom Yorn, described her son as a loyal reporter who regularly covered social issues. His wife, Hong Tha, said he had grown thinner in custody and pleaded for a reduced sentence. Pheara’s wife, Om Sarath, who lives in Banteay Meanchey province, told The Associated Press that her husband had merely delivered gifts to front-line soldiers and posed for a souvenir photograph. She stated that her husband was unaware that a landmine was visible in the background. Both men remain held in Siem Reap Prison.

Rights advocates have condemned the outcome. Bryony Lau, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the prosecution reflected the authorities’ “disdain for media freedom.” Shawn Crispin, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ senior Southeast Asia representative, responded similarly, calling equating reporting with treason “farcical.” Am Sam Ath of the rights group Licadho argued Cambodia could have charged the pair under the country’s press law, which carries far lighter penalties than the Criminal Code. The Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association called the 14-year terms the harshest ever imposed on the country’s reporters.

Cambodian officials defended the ruling as the product of an independent judiciary. Information Minister Neth Pheaktra said the courts protect journalism while safeguarding national security. He added that freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed but “not unlimited” and confers no immunity from criminal liability. The decision intensified scrutiny of Prime Minister Hun Manet’s government. Rights groups accuse Manet of leaning on the courts to silence critics, echoing practices under his father and predecessor, Hun Sen. Cambodia ranks 151st of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index.