A Cambodian woman visits ki-media.blogspot.com, the Web site of the Cambodian news blog KI-Media. The site posts news, opinion and political cartoons from local and international sources. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)Thursday, 01 October 2009
James O'toole and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
The Phnom Penh Post
Dear KI-Media Readers,The anonymous authors of KI-Media are forging an independent place in the political sphere.
Please rest assured that I am still a woman and I have no intention of becoming a man any time soon.
Yours truly,
Socheata
ON September 16, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a press conference in which it attempted to dispel a report that Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian Mu Sochua had participated in an “official” meeting in Washington with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“The US ambassador met with me yesterday and said that what was published on KI-Media was not true,” a secretary of state for the ministry, Ouch Borith, said. “It is an exaggeration and a lie.”
The meeting between Clinton and Mu Sochua did in fact take place, but debate continues over whether it was strictly official or not. Whatever one makes of this controversy, however, Ouch Borith’s comments signal the rising stature of KI-Media, an English-language news aggregation blog founded several years ago by a group of like-minded Cambodians who met on a series of Internet discussion forums.
Their first post appeared on July 27, 2005, featuring a controversial video interview with Chhay Vee, a man who claimed involvement in the 1997 grenade attack in front of the old National Assembly building that killed 16 people.
“Looking back,” wrote Socheata, one of the administrators of the site, “posting that video essentially defined one of our goals that we have maintained since: disseminating information that is not easily available through the traditional media, or that has been suppressed/banned/censored by the Phnom Penh regime”.
Like the other contributors interviewed, Socheata insisted on confining correspondence to email and requested that he be identified only by his Internet handle, citing concerns about “safety and security”.
In the four years since the Chhay Vee video, the KI-Media team has stepped up its output, culling from local and international news outlets to produce a mix of news articles, political cartoons and editorials that numbers in the double digits on a daily basis. For the week of September 14, Socheata said, the site tallied 73,400 page views from almost 32,000 unique users.
KI-Media’s dozen or so regular contributors include four Cambodian residents, with others in Europe, Australia and North America. Though Socheata said the site is “not aligned with any political party”, another contributor, Khmerization, acknowledged that it “tends to be opposition-oriented”.
This assessment is borne out by the blog’s design. Passages of articles that include condemnations of the government are often enlarged and printed in red font, and contributors do not hesitate to editorialise. “15% garment sector decline, double digits drop in air arrivals, construction slowdown, but… all is fine in Hun Xen’s Cambodia!” read the site’s heading for a press release from the International Monetary Fund posted last week, the premier’s name spelled Vietnamese-style, with an “X”, in a jibe at his ties with the neighbouring country.
KI-Media’s site, ki-media.blogspot.com, has garnered attention across Cambodia’s political spectrum. Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said he checks it several times a day, and that many other members of government are also regular readers.
Despite their frequent attacks on the government, Khieu Kanharith said that those who post on the site need not fear government prosecution.
“People have the right to comment about whatever they want without fear of defamation or disinformation lawsuits,” the information minister said.
“But if journalists take comments from the blog and publish them in newspapers or on radio and TV to incite violence or defame someone, they will face a complaint.”
Others do not see the distinction between traditional news outlets and Web sites like KI-Media in such a cut-and-dried manner.
Soy Sopheap, publisher of the Deum Ampil newspaper, said he was one of many local and international journalists who regularly check KI-Media. He expressed frustration at the blog’s aggregating style, however, saying its contributors are siphoning revenue from professional journalists.
“I pay US$1,000 per month to my staff to report the news, and they steal from us,” he said. “It’s not fair to my media company.”
Heng Soy, another KI-Media blogger, dismissed this allegation. Though the site does post and translate articles from other news outlets, he said, this is done only with proper attribution to the original source. As for theft of revenue, Heng Soy noted that he and other contributors refuse paid advertisements “to avoid criticisms that we are trying to make a profit from this blog”.
Pa Nguon Teang, director of the Cambodian Centre for Independent Media, agreed that KI-Media properly sources the news it takes from other outlets, and said that he supports online debate. He worried, however, about the anonymous Web site’s lack of accountability.
“If they want to continue with this kind of work, they should identify themselves,” he said. “They are a media outlet, and they need to show their professionalism.”
Though contributors exchange only limited personal information with one another, most, Socheata said, appear to be students. He and others noted several events on which KI-Media helped drive coverage by traditional outlets, including the 2005 arrest of Human Rights Party President Kem Sokha and the controversial “ilovethailand” Web site that drew the ire of the Cambodian government this July after claiming parts of Cambodia as lost Thai territory.
Rather than competing with the mainstream media, however, Socheata said the goal of KI-Media is simply to encourage dialogue on the part of its readers.
“What we would like to foster is a healthy political debate on all issues that affect Cambodians,” he said.
22 comments:
It's such a boring article here . Too much to read with less interesting things .
Wow, Khieu Kanharith is also a regular reader of KI-Media.
This one is great:
“People have the right to comment about whatever they want without fear of defamation or disinformation lawsuits,” the information minister said.
But why there is difference with this:
“But if journalists take comments from the blog and publish them in newspapers or on radio and TV to incite violence or defame someone, they will face a complaint.”
Koun Khmer
Who told you to read my friend? go to Karaoke houses ? And no one will stop you.
5:04 PM !
Who asked you to respond and whose comment did you respond to ?
Yup, the KI is here to stay.
I love you, KI staff!
And, fuck you to all of the CPP supportors--yes, ALL OF YOUR SPECIES.
CPP Traitor
4:46PM may be you?
From5:11pm
Khiev Cunnarith,
You should have YOUR HEAD CHECK! It doesn't add up with your remark.
Has the CURRENT KHMER GOVERNMENT THE RIGHTS TO THE CITIZENS AT ALL?
Cunnarith, you wanted the news to be confined to a source. How is it free and fair, when a person is being sued for defamation and disinformation when the news outlets are spread?
You needed to get your head check and go back a REAL school, Get real education without purchasing your degree.
There are too many incompetent in CPP.
If they have members of the government read stuff on KI, they should show themselves so that they can defend their actions (even though we all know that their actions are purely stupid).
Congratulations to Ki-Media team and Khmerization for producing works that get the attention of the Phnom Penh Post as well as Ouch Borith and Khieu Kanharith and maybe Hun Sen and Sok An. A job well done.
We strongly support you all staff of KI-media.
Without you KI-media, we would have been kept in a pond like a frog.
Communists of CPP is like the vampires that are always afraid of the light.
Khmer love Khmer
It is ridiculous that PPP called Socheat "he" not "she".
Cheer KI teams!
7:43 PM Absolutely awesome!
Keeping spreading the world if not KI-media we will never ever discussed anything upon this issues. The rest of those Khmer sites would be love, food, travel, family, nor community. Never into political, economical, nor futurical or else Cryptes of Phnom Penh would be in every corner.
i love ki when i drunk. i love ki when i'm sober.
and socheata please stay beautiful!
Wow! 32,000 users.Can you imagine we're all united as one,I say watchout the CPP government.But I'm just a dreamer.So far we're all NOTHING but a bunch of CLUNKERS.
This is so great! If CPP official also read this, then they understand our frustration and will work to better themselves to serve Khmer nation.
This benefit everyone, so we should be mindful and be constructive.
Welcome aboard Mr. Khieu and others.
KI Reader,
Student
I love KI-MEDIA! It's my number one news source of Cambodia. Keep up the good work! Thanks.
...Though Socheata said the site is “not aligned with any political party”.
Wow, are you sure Socheata? Please don't lie to your readers. Try to be honest, otherwise what is the difference between you and those you criticize of lacking honesty?
Not only Khieu Kanharith & some CPP
but Toul Krasaing It group that is leaded by Hun Xen's kids. Hun Maneth & Hun Mana aka PPU.
They monitore us,Khmer Patriots,
24 hrs a day and 7 days a week....
PLs keep barking Yuon's Slaves.
Great Site KI.
Pls keep up good works for Cambodia & its People.
---- Important Security Alert ---
Socheata – how do you know that there are roughly 32,000 unique users?
Were these users identified by their ip addresses, and who can put his hand on these users ip addresses? Can some “authority” or “agency” get their hand on the list of these ip addresses?
Agent32
Congratulations! This is the best
Khmer Information for our daily life.
Thank you KI-Media, members. I am addicted to this website.
KI MEDIA is a good place to share ideas but unfortunately some people are not educated enough to use such a language like giving constructive criticism to improve the quality of lives or improve the governments' constitution and so on. Diplomatic dialogue is very significant because it does not affect anyone; it is kind of focusing on what needs to be done rather than on individual level. In other words, it is about community development not about personal conflicts etc. Aust
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