Filed under: Free Speech
Kingdom relieved after US internet law fails to pass
by Brennan Stark, The Phnom Penh Post, Tuesday, 24 January 2012
The postponement of two US internet piracy bills last week was met with relief by human rights and media experts in Cambodia, who say the overreaching grasp of the proposed legislation would hinder the internet’s progress and growth in the Kingdom.
The US House of Representative’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) had aimed to require that internet providers block access to websites accused of piracy and would criminalise the unlawful streaming of copyrighted material by domestic or foreign websites.
Mike Gaertner, chief operating officer of Phnom Penh-based CIDC Information Technology, said the proposed measures would hurt only the US market in the long run. (more…)
Filed under: Press Freedom
Prime Minister Renews Attacks on US Broadcasters
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer, Monday, 28 November 2011
In recent month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has made a number of public speeches against broadcasters VOA Khmer and Radio Free Asia for critical coverage of his government.
“Go ahead, broadcast my speeches,” he said at a ceremony to inaugurate a bridge in Kampot province earlier this month.
He asked the crowd to point out the RFA reporter present. “Go ahead, insult me,” he said. “I won because you insulted me. The more you insult, the more you make a mistake.” (more…)
Filed under: Commentary
Cambodian Journalists Still Face More Challenges
Moeun Chhean Nariddh’s Letter to the editor, The Phnom Penh Post Khmer, 14 October 2011
Dear editor,
I am very interested in reading about the assessment by the Phnom Penh Post’s Publisher of the media situation in Cambodia in the article “The Post: Society Looking Glass,” October 11.
First, I must congratulate the Post on its turning point to make profits in the media business in Cambodia after four years of heavy losses.
The Post’s success has proved that it is not only a professional newspaper, but it also has a sound business strategy to win the support of readers and advertisers in Cambodia’s competitive media business environment.
However, not many Cambodian newspapers have been as successful. Regardless of their sizes, only a handful of the 398 newspapers registered at the Ministry of Information have become relatively successful and been able to continue their publications. Hundreds of other newspapers became bankrupt less than a year into the media business. (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized
The Phnom Penh Post: Society’s Looking Glass
- by Stuart Alan Becker, Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Dunkley has sailed with Rupert Murdoch, smoked cigars with Robert DeNiro, watched Francis Ford Copp-ola speak on the telephone in Hanoi, joked with Vaclav Havel and received encouragement from United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon on an aircraft out of Myanmar.
Here in Phnom Penh, he is on the verge of pushing The Phnom Penh Post into profit-ability following more than four years of losses.
“What people don’t acknowledge enough is that Cambodia has the freest media market in Asia,’’ Dunkley says. (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized
Donate $10 to sponsor training of journalist at Cambodia Institute for Media Studies
Three Cambodian journalists have been arrested and jailed for extortion after they were tricked over five dollars. Lack of professional skills makes Cambodian journalists fall victims of their own work.
Help a Cambodian journalist get trained in a professional skill for only $10. For $50, CIMS can train a journalist on all basic news reporting and writing skills. For $500, you can sponsor a week-long news reporting course with your signature on certificates of completion for 15 journalists. CIMS trainers will donate free labour for training five additional journalists.
All donations and expenses will be announced on CIMS Website and Cambodian Journalism Review blog.
Send your donations to Cambodia Institute for Media Studies, Account No 0001 10 540935 15, ACLEDA Bank, Monivong Boulevard, Phnom Penh
Filed under: Education
Community Malaria Workers Use SMS to Report in Real-Time
- Malaria Consortium’s Ngor Pengby demonstrating how to charge a mobile phone using a solar panel. This project is in collaboration with Mobitel. Photo by WHO/Moeun Chhean Nariddh
From her house in Snay Anchit Village, about five kilometers from the health center in Kampot provonce’s Chum Kiri district, 20-year-old village malaria worker Kong Lida can clearly hear the noise of a generator roaring in the distance. This generator is an important source of power where Lida and other villagers have their car batteries charged everyday so that their houses can be lit up at night from electric lamps and at the same time charge up their mobile phones.
But soon Lida and other village malaria workers in her village and other communes will not need to pay the generator owner to have their car batteries charged anymore. Now, all these VMWs will get their power from a ubiquitous source of energy – namely solar power.
As part of the country’s malaria elimination strategy, the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control or CNM, with technical support from Malaria Consortium (MC) and WHO, has launched a pilot program to train VMWs in Kampot, Siem Reap and Kampong Cham provinces on how to send simple mobile phone text messages (SMS) to report in real time on detected malaria cases. These SMS messages also support the paper reporting that feeds into the health information system from the health centers. (more…)
Filed under: Free Speech
All Parties Stand to Gain From Freedom of Information Law
Letter to The Cambodia Daily, Thursday, September 29, 2011
I read with great interest the move to legalize freedom of information in Cambodia in the article “Group Backs Freedom of Information Draft Law,” Sept 27, Page 1.
Regardless of which parties or politicians sponsor the Freedom of Information Law (FoI), the passing of the access to information legislation will be of a great benefit for all sectors of the society, including the government itself.
With a FoI law in place, the government can promote transparency, good governance and social accountability, which are deemed the best weapons to fight corruption in Cambodia.
Most importantly, the public will reap a significant profit from full information disclosure that can help them better engage in Cambodia’s democratic process and to make more informed decision about their daily life. (more…)
Filed under: Free Speech
Freedom of expression groups urge ASEAN to promote access to information
SOURCE: Southeast Asian Press Alliance, 28 September 2011
(SEAPA/IFEX) – Jakarta, 28 September 2011 – On International Right to Know Day, ARTICLE 19, Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), Media Defence-Southeast Asia and SAPA Task Force on ASEAN Freedom of Information, urge the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to demonstrate its commitment to public participation by promoting access to information within ASEAN and among its member states.
Across the world, the right to information has been widely recognised by regional bodies and more than 90 countries alike as a fundamental right essential for the achievement of every person’s civil, political and socio-economic rights and as a mechanism to promote democratic accountability and good governance. These include the ASEAN member states of Indonesia, Thailand, and the federal state of Selangor in Malaysia.
ASEAN has been gradually moving towards greater incorporation of public participation. At the 18th ASEAN Summit in May this year, the Chair’s statement emphasised that ASEAN member states will continue to “encourage the participation of the peoples and other stakeholders of ASEAN” and intensify its work towards a “people-oriented, people-centred and rules-based ASEAN”. (more…)
Filed under: Free Speech
Journalists Fear Media Environment of Self-Censorship
by Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC, Friday, 09 September 2011
Moeun Chhean Nariddh, director of the Cambodia Institute for Media Studies, on “Hello VOA” Thursday. Photo: by Heng Reaksmey
Journalists in Cambodia are currently facing problems of self-censorship, lawsuits and a competitive market, media experts said Thursday, but they said news organizations must continue to hold to principles of professional and a duty to the public.
The trend in oppression of Cambodian journalists have shifted from street attacks, threats of violence and murder to one of punitive legal measures by powerful interests, Moeun Chhean Nariddh, director of the Cambodia Institute for Media Studies, told “Hello VOA.”
In recent years, journalists have had to face a number of lawsuits or jail terms, especially under a criminalized defamation law.
This has created an environment where journalists self censor by avoiding issues like corruption and human rights abuses, he said. The best counter measure, he said, is accurate reporting in the public’s interest. (more…)
Filed under: Commentary
The loss of a living Almanac on Tuol Sleng
Moeun Chhean Nariddh, The Phnom Penh Post, Wednesday, 07 September 2011
It was 1998 when former Phnom Penh Post Editor Sara Colm came to me with an assignment. This was not a regular journalistic assignment to report on a story. However, she gave me a new job to translate a compelling memoir of Mr Vann Nath, a surviving prisoner at Khmer Rouge’s Tuol Sleng execution and torture center.
My evening became occupied. With two Khmer and English dictionaries on my sides, I started pecking loudly at a typewriter, breaking the silence of many nights to come.
At times, my translation work seemed to have had a short supply since Mr Vann Nath could produce only a page in a day or two. The painter-turned writer said he felt too overwhelmed by the painful memory about his torture and other prisoners’ tragedy to write as much as he could. (more…)
