By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
At the end of the meeting with political parties, the NEC announced that, based on an agreement with TVK, political parties will have 8 minutes of TV time to defend their program for the general election.
When Im Suosdey, the NEC president, invited private radio and TV station owners to discuss about broadcasting time that could be sold to the various political parties, none of the station representatives showed up at the meeting.
TVK decided to provide 100 minutes of broadcast time for the election campaign to be divided among the registered parties. “Each party will have approximately 8 minutes, this is 3 minutes mote than in the previous elections,” Tep Nytha, the NEC secretary-general said.
Several parties proposed for a change in the official campaign program. The secretary-general of the Khmer-American Party asked for the cancellation of the broadcasting of the “round table” program and that it is replaced by a face-to-face debate instead. During this program, each political party would send a representative to read its program in front of the camera.
SRP MP Yim Sovann indicated that he did not wish to participate in the “round table” program and that he would prefer a campaign spot during the allotted broadcast time.
These two proposals were rejected by the NEC because the spot broadcast and the “round table” was already planned separately.
Several parties said that the 8 minutes they had would be insufficient.
“TV viewers cannot concentrate long on the same subject. The TV campaign now lasts 20 minutes per day, from Monday to Friday. We are currently discussing with the National Democratic Institute to set up a 60-minute daily broadcast. With the 100-minute that we dedicate on top of that, and that would re-broadcasted the next day, it will be 180-minute per day, this does not even count the re-broadcasting. Wouldn’t that be enough?” TVK’s Kem Gunnawadh retorted.
“Don’t be afraid to annoy the viewers. Just give us as much time as possible,” Ban Sophal, secretary-general of the Justice Party asked.
SRP’s Yim Sovann also asked that the broadcasting of the TV campaign be held between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM.
“You cannot cut the news time slot,” Kem Gunnawadh replied. For the latter the broadcasting of the election campaign cannot start before 8:15 PM.
When Im Suosdey, the NEC president, invited private radio and TV station owners to discuss about broadcasting time that could be sold to the various political parties, none of the station representatives showed up at the meeting.
TVK decided to provide 100 minutes of broadcast time for the election campaign to be divided among the registered parties. “Each party will have approximately 8 minutes, this is 3 minutes mote than in the previous elections,” Tep Nytha, the NEC secretary-general said.
Several parties proposed for a change in the official campaign program. The secretary-general of the Khmer-American Party asked for the cancellation of the broadcasting of the “round table” program and that it is replaced by a face-to-face debate instead. During this program, each political party would send a representative to read its program in front of the camera.
SRP MP Yim Sovann indicated that he did not wish to participate in the “round table” program and that he would prefer a campaign spot during the allotted broadcast time.
These two proposals were rejected by the NEC because the spot broadcast and the “round table” was already planned separately.
Several parties said that the 8 minutes they had would be insufficient.
“TV viewers cannot concentrate long on the same subject. The TV campaign now lasts 20 minutes per day, from Monday to Friday. We are currently discussing with the National Democratic Institute to set up a 60-minute daily broadcast. With the 100-minute that we dedicate on top of that, and that would re-broadcasted the next day, it will be 180-minute per day, this does not even count the re-broadcasting. Wouldn’t that be enough?” TVK’s Kem Gunnawadh retorted.
“Don’t be afraid to annoy the viewers. Just give us as much time as possible,” Ban Sophal, secretary-general of the Justice Party asked.
SRP’s Yim Sovann also asked that the broadcasting of the TV campaign be held between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM.
“You cannot cut the news time slot,” Kem Gunnawadh replied. For the latter the broadcasting of the election campaign cannot start before 8:15 PM.
