Cambodian Joins Journalist UN Program

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
05 October 2007

Cambodian journalist Khan Sophirom, of the Rasmei Kampuchea daily newspaper, has joined thirteen other international journalists for a UN fellowship in New York.

The Reham Al-Farra Memorial fellowship gives journalists a chance to meet with UN officials, learn about the priorities of the organization and visit major media outlets in New York. It ends Oct. 11, according to a UN press release.

"This is a program mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1980," UN spokeswoman Joanna Piucci told VOA Khmer. "It is intended to familiarize young journalists from developing countries with the work of the UN, while at the same time giving them all the opportunities to cover UN activities for their home media organization."

Cambodian journalist wins UN fellowship for training in New York

July 24, 2007

A Cambodian journalist has won a United Nations (UN) fellowship which will take him to New York to learn about the work of the UN and to cover UN activities, a press release said in Phnom Penh on Tuesday.

Khan Sophirom, a reporter from the Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper, has been selected to attend the 2007 Reham Al Farra Memorial Journalists' Fellowship Program, said the press release issued by the UNDP communications office in Cambodia, adding that the program will take place from September 4 to October 11.

The program, formerly known as the United Nations Department of Public Information Training Program for Broadcasters and Journalists from Developing Countries, was renamed for a United Nations Radio journalist Reham Al Farra, who lost her life along with 21 colleagues in the bombing of the UN office in Baghdad in August 2003, the press release said.

Khan Sophirom will attend the program together with 13 other journalists from around the world, it said, adding that he will be the third journalist from Cambodia to attend the program.

Initiated in 1981, the program has so far trained more than 300 journalists from more than 156 countries, it said.

During the program, the journalists report on the work of the General Assembly as temporary UN correspondents for their media organizations, it added.

Source: Xinhua