Raoul Jennar (R) hugging Khieu Kaharith (Photo: DAP news)
09 September 2009DAP newsTranslated from Khmer by SocheataRaoul Jennar, the Belgian advisor of Hun Xen’s government and an expert in constitutional law, expressed his concerns when he saw that some tourist guides written in French contain attacks on Hun Xen’s regime. He said that such attacks could affect the emotion of tourists visiting Cambodia.
Raoul Jennar made this comment during his meeting discussion with Khieu Kanharith, the minister of Information, in the afternoon of 08 September 2009, at the ministry of Information.
Raoul Jennar came to Cambodia in 1989 to provide help to the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), the Vietnamese-installed puppet regime, to set up a new constitution in order to form the state of Kampuchea. This year, he is also giving a talk, for the first time, at the Cambodian news media headquarter about democracy in the world.
Currently, Raoul Jennar is a Cambodian government advisor providing help in international relation, such as the KR Tribunal and the Preah Vihear temple issue etc…
Raoul Jennar also indicated that some foreign countries said that freedom of the press in Cambodia dropped and he said that Cambodia must put additional effort to let other countries understand about this issue. Furthermore, he also raised the issue of the delays at the KR Tribunal work due to other piling up problems.
In response to Raoul Jennar, Khieu Kanharith said that the publishing freedom right in Cambodia is guaranteed by the Cambodian press law. However, he said that, when false reports are printed, Cambodia has the right to review these publications by a panel of experts, therefore tourist guides must also be reviewed by the ministry of Tourism, and as far as the concerns expressed by Raoul Jennar, the ministry of Information plans to discuss this issue with the ministry of Tourism. Furthermore, the ministry of Information will review all these points, and it will send its guidelines to the publishers. [KI-Media note: Khieu Kanharith must be joking if he thinks he can censure tourist guides published overseas].
Regarding freedom of the press, Khieu Kanharith said that Cambodia still have elevated freedom rights, but what people get confused is when disinformation is published and some [the publishers] are charged, then the public does not understand in depth that this is not done to prevent the freedom of the press, but that it is rather a case of defamation of the honor of certain individuals [like Hun Xen and Xok An?], or an act of incitation, such as the case of Angkor Wat temple when Thailand claimed that Cambodia does not have the ability to preserve the temple by itself. Therefore, according to Khieu Kanharith, some articles are not only defamation, they also constitute incitation as well.
Regarding the KR Tribunal, Khieu Kanharith said that Hun Xen’s stance, as expressed in his speech on 07 September, does not mean that Hun Xen is trying to prevent or put obstacles in the tribunal work, but that he only indicated that some of the issues raised by the KRT does not take into consideration the social aspect whereby several problems will be created. Right now, the KRT has 4 other KR leader cases to judge, why doesn’t it concentrate on this work? Furthermore, the number of explanations provided by the witnesses so far is sufficient enough, so there is almost no need to bring in additional witnesses to come forward and provide their clarifications. But, Khieu Kanharith added that, maybe the salary for the KRT judges are so high that there are delays taking place like this.
