15 June 2012
ScandAsia.com
Senior Minister Om Yen Tieng, head of the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit, speaks at a joint Sweden-Cambodia workshop on press freedom and media ethics in Phnom Penh. He supports an idea of having a press council that would act as a self-regulating body with the power to field complaints as well as sanction reporters and their media organisations.
Many local reporters and editors from various radio stations and newspapers attended a joint workshop between Cambodia and Sweden on press freedom and ethics yesterday in Phnom Penh.
As a high-ranking Cambodian official proposed an idea of having the self-regulating press council, Minister Om Yin Tieng endorsed the idea.
“We don’t want the court to judge,” Om Yin Tieng said, although he said the court would not be taken completely out of the equation.
The new body would not replace incitement and disinformation laws that have been used to put journalists in prison.
Om Yin Tieng said the council would be along the lines of the Cambodian Medical Association, with its authority limited to withdrawing licenses, issuing fines, and ordering corrections and apologies.
The existing model is Sweden’s Press Council, which was established in 1916 and is the oldest of its kind in the world.
The Press Council’s ombudsman, Ola Sigvardsson, flew in to lead the one-day workshop.
He said about 300 complaints a year came to his office, and he rejected roughly 250 of them. If he wants to uphold a complaint, he sends it to the Press Council for approval. Newspapers, magazines and their websites then have to publish the decision.
Although he is unfamiliar with laws governing the press in Cambodia, Sigvardsson said a free and unrestrained media environment was necessary for the Press Council to work.
2 comments:
this sounds good because this way gov't don't be to be involved in this, so people can't excuse or blame the gov't or point finger at the gov't to control of their freedom of speech or what have you. this way, the unruly opposition can't excuse the gov't of controlling their freedom of speech or whatever. let the ethical body or ethical board deal with them. that is very clever and smart of mr. om yin tieng to come up with this wonderful concept, i think. god bless cambodia always.
i always say it is better to look for solution to all problem than to do nothing about it. and whining won't always help, either, you know.
"He(AH Om Yin Tieng) said about 300complaints a year came to his office, and he rejected roughly 250 of them."
=Fuck you AH Om Yin Tieng! How about open your pant and lift your wife skirt and regulate what you want to do with your life! There are enough stupid Cambodian laws to prevent Cambodian people from expressing their outrage against your stupid Vietcong slave policy!
What about the complaint from Boeung Kak Lake residents, Borei Keila residents and many other communities that were evict from their land? You can’t handle the truth and now what you want to do again?
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