The government led by Prime Minister Hun Sen for more than 30 years keeps a close watch on the media and maintains very good relations with the leading media owners. After the opposition did surprisingly well in the June 2017 municipal elections, the regime launched an all-out war on independent media outlets with the aim of ensuring victory in the general elections scheduled for July 2018. Around 30 radio stations were silenced and Cambodia Daily, an English-language newspaper that had helped to nurture Cambodia’s fragile democracy since the 1990s, was forced to close. Several journalists are now in prison on trumped-up charges. Combined with the shooting death of a media commentator, this has resulted in a climate of terror that has drastically curtailed press freedom.