Fact Check: Hun Sen’s Photo Altered with Thy Sovantha
Prime Minister Hun Sen has been the subject of numerous verbal attacks from opposition leaders and supporters against him, especially on social media. Meanwhile a photo showing Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, sitting with a young woman known as Thy Sovantha (a Social Media Celebrity), inside the vehicle was posted on Facebook recently. This photo was reacted with mixed comments and shared by many Cambodian Facebook users. However, after running a Google Reverse Image and reviewing photos on Hun Sen’s official facebook page, it proves that the photo above was altered.
This is about our investigation of this claim.
Social Media Claim
On June 18, 2021, one of the Facebook users posted a photo showing the Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen with Ms. Thy Sovantha sitting in a car together. Ms. Thy Sovantha is commonly known as a former political activist, and used to be the one who supported the opposition party as well. She was well-known on Facebook back to the Cambodian national election in 2013, and she later joined and supported the Cambodian People Party instead. The photo was shared several times and reacted by Facebook users who are speaking Khmer.
The following screenshot is captured from a Facebook user's post with the caption which translates in English as “Grandpa's real granddaughter”.
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.
An exact photo of Prime Minister Hun Sen in the same form and shape was found which had been posted in his own official Facebook page on June 14, 2019. The same photo actually shows the Prime Minister and his eldest granddaughter in a car.
A screenshot captured from the official Facebook page of Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, captioned in Khmer and translated in English as “My granddaughter misses her grandfather so much that she tried to fly to wait for his grandpa in Hungary. This morning, bring my grandchildren along with delegations to pay a courtesy call on the President and Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament and to let grandchildren know how the works of the country's leaders”.
According to another report made in a local newspaper website, Fresh News that was published on June, 14 2019, also shows a photo of Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, meeting with his granddaughter in Hungary. The photo posted by this news website does not show the view of his photo being taken with Ms. Thy Sovantha at all. The headline from Fresh News website captioned “Samdech Techo Hun's eldest granddaughter misses his grandfather too much, trying to take flight from France to meet in Hungary”.
Fresh News’s Report | Archived Link
A similar case was also checked and published by the Fact Crescendo Cambodia team in Khmer language as well on May 28, 2021. This report also shows photos of Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, meeting with his granddaughter during his official visit to Hungary in June 2019.
Fact Crescendo Cambodia’s Report | 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 is altered. This photo had been edited before it was posted on social media. The original photo is showing the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, and his own granddaughter during his official visit to Hungry back in 2019.
