About 1,000 people set against proposed laws on internet usage, labour unions and agriculture descended upon Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park for a forum yesterday.

Among speakers at the rally was So Sorthy of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media. The draft cybercrime law was written without imput of civil society, and diminishes the ability to share information and organise via social media in Cambodia, he said.

“If the law is adopted [in its current form], people will be criminally charged just for sharing, posting or expressing ideas online,” Sorthy said.

“So we ask the government to reconsider Article 28 [of the draft legislation].”

The cybercrime law’s status, however, remains uncertain.

At the rally, the Community Legal Education Center’s labour program head Moeun Tola told the crowd that the government has no need to pass a law on labour unions, because Cambodia already has a labour law.

Farmer representatives also said that planned legislation regarding agriculture could put crippling restrictions on the approximately 85 per cent of the Kingdom’s population who make their living farming.