Friday, December 15, 2006

Politicians Must Divide Free TV Time: NEC [- Son Chhay: "The CPP campaign [via state media] anytime they please"]

Friday, December 15, 2006

By Pin Sisovann and Elizabeth Tomei
THE CAMBODIA DAILY


The National Election Committee Thursday called on political parties to suggest how free airtime for political campaigning on state television should be divided among candidates ahead of April's commune elections.

The NEC will offer a limited amount of free television airtime for parties to promote their platforms, but has not yet decided whether time will be divided equally or given primarily to parties fielding larger numbers of candidates, Tep Nytha, NEC secretary-general, said at a meeting with party representatives and NGOs.

But election monitors maintained that airtime should be divided equally among parties, no matter what their size is.

Hang Puthea, director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free Elections in Cambodia, said small parties pay the same amount as established parties to officially register, and so should be given the same amount of airtime.

Mar Sophal, monitoring officer for the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, said that giving some parties more coverage will bias voters, who should be equally informed about the platform of each party.

He added that the CPP already overuses state-run TVK to promote itself.

SRP lawmaker Son Chhay said that time should be split among parties that hold seats in the National Assembly, rather than shared with "some parties who hardly exist."

But he added that the airtime provided by the NEC is essentially meaningless anyway.

"The CPP campaign [via state media] anytime they please," he said.

Ok Socheat public affairs adviser to Prince Norodom Ranariddh who heads the fledgling Norodom Ranariddh Party, said that in principle, time should be divided equally among all parties. But he added that only with a large amount of purchased airtime on commercial stations could the NRP hope to compete with the CPP’s coverage.

"The CPP will always dominate" state-run media, he said

CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said time should be divided based on the number of communes where each party puts forward candidates. The CPP is fielding candidates in every commune, he said.

"It is unfair to be equal to a party that runs in one commune," he added.

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