Fact Check: Cambodian King, Sihamoni, Wearing Vietnamese Army Hat Altered
Activities and expressions of criticism that tarnished the reputation of the King of Cambodia were made often by former opposition leaders and its supporters. Meanwhile a photo showing Cambodian king, Sihamoni, wearing a Vietnamese army hat while there were flags of Vietnam and the People's Republic of Kampuchea held by the Cambodian’s top officials was posted on Facebook. It was reacted to and shared by Khmer-speaking social media users. However, after running Google Reverse Image and Yandex, it proves that the photo above is altered.
This is about our investigation of this photo.
Social Media Claim
On May 15, 2019, one of the Facebook users posted a photo showing the top Cambodian officials including Heng Samrin, President of the National Assembly of Cambodia, holding the national flag of Cambodia and the flag of Vietnam while His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia wearing a Vietnamese army hat too. The same user did not specify the location or specific details of the photo aspect. This photo has been shared hundreds of times along with mixed reactions and expressions from Facebook users speaking Khmer.
A screenshot image captured from a Facebook user's post translates in English as “Those who say that the king does nothing because he is under Hun Sen are wrong, and in fact, they must be betraying the same nation, whether they want to or not, the king must be more responsible than Hun Sen. And the king just wanted to wash his ass for the king, the king sealed many acts of treason for the government, even the law on the king, why the king did not betray the nation, of course, this is clearly the king's intention, not the king did not want”.
Fact Check
Fact Crescendo Cambodia had started to check and verify this photo directly by running a Google Reverse Image search, which brought us to the sources containing the following photos.
A photo of the exact same format and image was found and published by Radio Free Asia (RFA) on November 9, 2015. The following screenshot photo captured from a news website that translates in English as “Prince Norodom Sihamoni (center), King Of the Kingdom of Cambodia attends the 62nd Anniversary of National Independence Day, November 9 Phnom Penh Independence Monument on November 9, 2015”.
Radio Free Asia’s Report | Archived Link
The 62nd Anniversary of the 9th November Independence Day was also posted on the Youtube video website on November 9, 2015 by VOD News. An additional image from the website reads in Khmer and translates in English as “Cambodia commemorates the 62nd anniversary of the independence from French”.
According to FreeWeChat, it also posted and published an exact photo of His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni and senior Cambodian leaders. This does not show views of Cambodian leaders holding flags nor wearing a Vietnamese army hat in commemoration of the 62nd anniversary of national independence at all.
The below screenshot was captured from the above website which states in Chinese as “柬埔寨国王与洪森总理出席独立节点灯仪式” or translates in English by using Google Translate which means “The King of Cambodia and Prime Minister Hun Sen attend the independent day ceremony”.
FreeWeChat Link | Archived Link
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You may find the details of this fact-check in Khmer language here as well.
Conclusion
Fact Crescendo Cambodia has found that the photo posted and claimed by the above user was altered. This photo had been edited before it was posted on social media. This original photo does not show Cambodia's top officials holding the Vietnamese flag nor wearing the Vietnamese army hat.
Title: Cambodian King, Sihamoni, Wearing Vietnamese Army Hat Altered
Fact Check By: Kakada SimResult: Altered
