TVK announces allocation of air time for parties [... TVK "fair and balanced" campaign coverage is mainly a "fairy" tale]

Tuesday, 17 June 2008
Dan Poynton
The Mekong Times

Leading state TV channel TVK announced yesterday its allocation of air time to political parties competing in the national election for its daily Equity News election program.

Equity News is funded by the UN Development Program (UNDP) and the Australian government.

The daily 15-minute program – broadcast after the 7pm news – provides “fair and balanced campaign coverage” during the month-long run-up to the July 27 election, according to a TVK/UNDP press statement.

The allocation of air time to the 11 parties running in the election has been endorsed by the National Election Committee and this year gives greater weight to parties fielding candidates in the 2008 election rather than the role they played in past elections, according to the statement.

An 80 percent loading goes to parties fielding candidates in all 123 constituencies, and a 20 percent loading to their past performance in the 2003 and 2007 national elections.

“Less emphasis has been placed on past history and the privileges of incumbency and more opportunity accorded to opposition and emerging parties with less access to the media between ballots,” said the statement.

The Equity News website claims that the program is “seen as a breakthrough in Cambodian broadcasting for its balanced and impartial coverage of the election campaign.”

Koul Panha, director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL), told The Mekong Times he agrees with the Equity News claim, but stressed all TV channels and media – including TVK – should increase their political coverage between election periods, and should include more opposition opinions about government projects.

“The other channels and media should adopt this [Equity News] model; they should be enforced [to do so] through the legal framework,” he said. “Between elections [however] TV channels don’t cover enough. There are a lot of social and development programs, but there should be more political opinion about these programs from the opposition.”

Koul Panha said most people in Cambodia watch so much television, that its influence by far out-dominates all other media, and so it is important that TV coverage is more equitable.

“In [the] 2003 and 2007 [national elections], the program was fair. In 2008 we will observe,” he said.

In conjunction with Equity News, TVK’s Equity Weekly program – running since May 2007 – provides a 40-minute weekly summary of election news every Saturday.

Parties criticize the setup of the official TV election campaign

22 May 2008
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.

Cambodia launches first satellite TV network

PHNOM PENH, April 3 (Xinhua) -- The national Television of Kampuchea (TVK) and the Cambodian DTV Network Limited (CDN), a branch of the Shin Satellite Company from Thailand, here on Thursday launched Techo-DTV, the first satellite TV network of Cambodia.

"From now on, people in all the corners of Cambodia will be able to watch all programs of our TV networks easily through this satellite TV network," said Khieu Kahnarith, Cambodian government spokesman and Minister of Information.

People who live at all kinds of geographical locations will be able to watch TV programs through this satellite TV service, he said.

The Cambodia National Election Committee (NEC) will be able to use this satellite TV network to educate people about election process for the general election in July, he added.

Kem Kunnawadh, director general of TVK, said that Techo-DTV is the country's first satellite television network service that can provide Direct-to-Home (DTH) television programs to every household in the kingdom.

The viewers will enjoy watching all local Khmer channels and some foreign channels, he said, adding that people can also subscribe to pay TV service in the near future.

Dumrong Kasemset, Chief of Executive for the Shin Satellite Company, said that the main benefit of Techo-DTV service includes digital quality of picture and sound similar to that of DVD and convenience to install at every location of houses and buildings.

The DTV service sells 75 U.S. dollars with satellite dish and antenna.

Urban Cambodian people can now access cable TV networks, while about 20 percent of the 14 million population in remote places can't access TV service. Satellite TV will be their solution if they can afford it.

TVK coverage in Cambodia: By the CPP, For the CPP, To the CPP

Group: National TV Coverage Skewed to CPP

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
29 February 2008

The independent monitoring group Comfrel said Friday that national television had spent an excessive amount of time covering the activities of ruling party politicians and not enough on the business of government.

TVK, which is owned by the government, spent 90 percent of its political coverage showing beneficial activities run by members of the Cambodian People's Party, Comfrel said, following observation of TKV from October 2007 to January 2008.

The national station spent only 10 percent of that coverage on the business of the National Assembly and Senate.

Koy Chandarith, media coordinator for Comfrel, called the coverage "biased."

"I ask TVK to give a chance to other parties so that they can be known and their activities shown," Koy Chandarith said.

Kim Kunawath, director-general of TVK, told VOA Khmer Friday that Comfrel's observations were not accurate.

He said if Comfrel approaches TVK, the work of the independent monitoring body would improve.

Muth Chantha, spokesman for the Norodom Ranariddh Party, said in recent months he has not heard of the NRP on TVK, "not even one second."

"TVK should broadcast news on education for the people, to encourage people to go to vote, to let them know the voting station sites and know all the political parties. These are important factors," Muth Chantha said.

TVK to broadcast live the election results

14 February 2008
By Keo Nimol
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

On 14 February, a high ranking TVK official said that the station will broadcast live the preliminary results of the July 2008 election.

Kim Kunavath, TVK director, said during a conference held at the ministry of information that: “I want to inform that TVK is preparing to broadcast live the preliminary results of the 27 July 2008 election, starting from 06:00 PM until the next morning. This broadcast will be supervised by the NEC. This task … demands that a working group study clearly about the means to achieve it.”

Regarding this live broadcast of the preliminary election results, Tep Nytha, the NEC secretary-general, said that this is a joint plan between the NEC and TVK.

Tep Nytha said: “In the evening, following the election, after the vote counting is done, there will be posting of the election results along election offices, and the NEC plans to have the election polls office, the Commune Election Committee, and the Provincial Election Committee to send these results to the NEC, we then cooperate with TVK to broadcast them during that evening, if not all of them, at least the majority of results. These will be preliminary results while waiting for the temporary results.”

SRP MP Son Chhay said: “The quick broadcast of the results is a good thing also, but it must be done with transparency. We want to see a quick tally of the results.”

According to the ministry of information yearly report, in 2007, Phnom Penh city has 7 TV stations, and there are 7 TV stations along the provinces, in addition there are 21 relay stations broadcasting Phnom Penh TV stations.

As for radio stations, Phnom Penh has 23 station, and there are 14 station in the provinces. There are 25 relay radio stations broadcasting Phnom Penh stations.

There altogether 327 national newspapers, 36 bulletins, and 129 magazines published. There are 27 foreign news agencies operating in Cambodia, and there are also 11 foreign news and TV agencies.

Hun Sen orders 2 TV stations to improve international news broadcast

Thursday, December 26, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Prime minister Hun Sen issued an order to two Cambodian TV stations to improve their information broadcasting, especially international news which are stale news. During a speech given at a diploma distribution ceremony to students in Phnom Penh, on Wednesday, Hun Sen said that TVK, the national TV station, and Apsara, a pro-CPP station, are usually broadcasting old news. Hun Sen asked these two stations to improve the quality of their international news broadcasts by spending money to buy the information from news agencies such as Reuters, AFP, AP, and CNN, so that their news broadcasts are up to date. However, Khieu Kanharith, the minister of Information, complained that TVK does not have money to buy news from foreign news agencies because his ministry is spending a lot of money to broadcast debates at the National Assembly already. Currently, TVK broadcasts international information it gleaned from French and Chinese TV channels.

Khieu Kanharith orders broadcasting of alleged affair by defrocked Khmer Krom monk: A theatrical and Kafkaesque setup by Phnom Penh?

Thursday, July 5, 2007
KI-Media News brief

Following his comments given to The Cambodia Daily yesterday, saying that the accusation against Khmer Krom Tim Sakhorn by patriarch Non Nget is not ground for Monk Tim Sakhorn’s defrocking, Khieu Kanharith, government spokesman and minister of information, ordered the broadcasting on the state-run TVK station, a news report about an alleged lover of Monk Tim Sakhorn. Khieu Kanarith told The Cambodia Daily that: “I ordered the broadcast because people are blaming the government for defrocking the monk.” The unknown woman TVK claimed is Tim Sakhorn’s lover, did not say or admit anything on camera, and only the program commentator can be heard on this new charge leveled against Monk Tim Sakhorn. The Koh Santepheap newspaper reported on Wednesday that police search of Monk Tim Sakhorn’s unearthed two “sex” video disks. The timing of these revelations become even more puzzling as they only came out several days after the defrocking of Monk Tim Sakhorn, and after numerous criticisms voiced out the lack of due process against Monk Tim Sakhorn. Furthermore, several critics said that according to Buddhist rules, there is no ground to defrock Monk Tim Sakhorn based on Non Nget’s accusation of “undermining diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Cambodia.” This situation led several sources to wonder whether Cambodia’s notorious corrupt and subservient police force did not plant and fabricated the evidence in order to bring more charges against Monk Tim Sakhorn. Thach Setha, executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Community, was quoted by The Cambodia as saying about the perpetrated against Khmer Krom monk Tim Sakhorn: “Kafkaesque situationIt was just theater. It’s very funny.”

Equity News back for Cambodia's commune councils election

February 24, 2007

The Equity News Elections Bulletin, a joint UNDP-TVK project, is retuning to state television and radio for the run-up to the commune councils elections to climax on April 1, said a press release on Friday.

The 15-minute Equity News program will provide coverage of political parties and platforms and follow campaign activities in a wide range of communes throughout the country, said the release jointly issued by Ministry of Information and the UNDP.

It will be broadcast every evening at 07:30 p.m. local time after the regular TVK news on weekdays with a summary edition on Saturdays during the campaign period from March 16 to 30, it said.

Equity News will also resume during the campaign period for the National Elections in 2008, it added.

To mark its return, a ceremony for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith and UNDP Program Director Anne-Isabelle Degryse-Blateau in the presence of the UN Resident Coordinator Douglas Gardner will be held at the Ministry of Information on Monday (February 26).

In 2003, during the parliamentary elections, Equity News was seen as a breakthrough in Cambodian election broadcasting. It was the first time that all main political parties received balanced and impartial coverage on television and radio.

It was also the first time that opposition leaders were both seen and heard on the news explaining their platforms and that the concept of equity was employed as a system of allocating air time coverage for political parties on the electronic media.

Source: Xinhua