Journalist Lauds Cambodian Media Ethics

Pen Samithy, editor-in-chief of Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper. [KI-Media Note: Rasmei Kampuchea is a mouthpiece of the CPP]

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
11 November 2009

Thai media has served to conflate diplomatic issues with Cambodia, with more nationalism than professionalism, a leading Cambodian journalist said Monday.

“If all the journalists respect the truth, people on both sides would understand the truth, and they would see which country is acting improperly,” said Pen Samithy, president of the Club of Cambodian Journalists, as a guest on “Hello VOA.”

“But as we have seen, in Thailand there are many media that still have a nationalist view, very much, which makes it so the Thai people can’t receive the truth,” he said.

Pen Samithy was discussing a new draft code of ethics for journalists, at a time when Cambodia’s opposition media has come under increasing pressure.

At least one opposition editor, Hang Chakra, was jailed recently, after publishing stories alleging corruption in the Council of Ministers. A second, Dam Sith, closed his newspaper rather than face similar charges.

Meanwhile, Cambodia and Thailand have become embroiled in an increasingly complicated diplomatic row over Prime Minister Hun Sen’s support of Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed prime minister wanted on corruption charges in Thailand, even as troops on both sides are massed on the border near Preah Vihear temple.

Pen Samithy praised Cambodian journalists for their help to the nation. While a code of ethics already existed among journalists, he said, the new one was a good sign of further cooperation, especially regarding the pursuit of “truth.”

Leading [Pro-CPP] Editor Cautiously Lauds Media Environment

Pen Samithy, editor of the pro-CPP Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
21 July 2009

A leading newspaper editor cautiously praised Cambodia’s media environment Monday, saying the press is faced with “legal action” but not “violence” as in other countries.

Pen Samithy, editor-in-chief of the Reaksmey Kampuchea, a leading daily newspaper, was reacting to the closing of Moneaksekar Khmer, an opposition paper, after its editor was charged with defamation.

“The situation today is that some newspapers are getting sued and some journalists are in jail, and some are solving their own issues,” he said, as a guest on “Hello VOA.”

While Dam Sith, editor of Moneaksekar Khmer, was able to avoid potential jail time by closing his opposition-aligned newspaper, following defamation and incitement accusations by the government, one of his colleagues, Hang Chakra, chief of the Khmer Mchas Srok newspaper, is serving a 12-month prison sentence on similar charges.

Pen Samithy said that all countries, including the US, have defamation cases, so a journalist must be independent and cautious with the dignity of people.

The editor acknowledged regret that the murderers of another opposition journalist, Khim Sambo, who was gunned down ahead of the 2008 general election, have not been caught—the 11th killing of a journalist to go unsolved since 1994.

Meanwhile, Cambodian media suffers a ranking of “not free,” according to the global media monitor Freedom House.

Cambodian bloggers dream of beating the propoganda

Clogger Chak Sopheap, one of the rare political bloggers in Cambodia

Tuesday, July 08, 2008
ABC Radio Australia

Just 10 per cent of Cambodians have access to the internet, but a small number of Cambodians are taking up the craft of blogging.

Cambodian bloggers, or 'Cloggers' as they refer to themselves, are starting to use cyberspace to discuss music, romance, daily life and, just occasionally, politics.

While the traditional news media has no official censorship and is often described as one of the freest in the region, a recent study concluded Cambodia's "media is closely controlled by politics, money and fear".

A survey of 150 journalists last year found 65 per cent were afraid of being physically attacked, and 62 per cent feared legal action.

Pen Samithy, President of the Club Of Cambodian Journalists, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program, while violence against journalists has diminished in recent years, the threat of criminal and civil prosecutions has increased.

"We are very concerned about this and I think after the election the Cambodian journalists will meet each other and resolve this problem," he said.

We don't want any journalist to be jailed because of their job."

Mr Samithy is also editor-in-chief of Rasmei Kampuchea, the largest newspaper in Cambodia.

He freely admits that his newspaper, like most in the country, is seen to have a bias towards Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party - just as some of his competitors favour the various Opposition parties.

He says his, and other papers, are striving to introduce more balance.

That is not the view of the bloggers, however.

Chak Sopheap is one of Cambodia's very few bloggers.

The 23-year-old says the media in Cambodia is increasing and is more open, but there are still limitations.

"If you look at TV nowadays there's restrictions and it's not independent at all," she said.

"The TV's role is to promote government and mainly the ruling party."

Bloggers are a long way from being able to challenge that official propoganda with only 1,000 or so active in the country and very few of those prepared to tackle politics.

After a blog entry criticising the ruling Cambodian People's Party, Miss Sopheap was sent a message telling her she should run otherwise she would be killed.

She says she doesn't expect blogs to have much influence on the election later this month but hopes that by the 2013 election Cambodia will have too many bloggers for any one political party to control their message.

"I notice that there's an increasing number because one of my network, they promote the blog creation, they go to schools, universities and other organisation to teach people how to blog and the benefits of blogging," Miss Sopheap said.

Press freedom an endless struggle for Asian media: Conference

January 15, 2008
The Jakarta Post (Indonesia)

The German-based Konrad Adenauer Foundation late last year held a conference on media and law in the Cambodian tourist center of Siem Reap. The Jakarta Post's Imanuddin Razak participated in the three-day conference, which covered discussions on press freedom in Asia.

Most people would agree that nothing in life is free -- including the obtaining or upholding of press freedom.

This basic truth was uttered by one conference participant who hailed from a Southeast Asian country.

An obvious example comes from the conference host: Cambodia itself.

The president of the Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ), Pen Samitthy, said due to a weak judicial system and law enforcement in Cambodia, the establishment of a press council to assist journalists in avoiding legal lawsuits was a necessity.

Looking at the number of media outlets in Cambodia -- 296 local newspapers, 90 magazines, 30 bulletins, 41 registered foreign media institutions, 22 radio stations and seven television stations, most of whom are privately owned -- there is widespread recognition the Cambodian media enjoy press freedom.

The image that press freedom in Cambodia is strongly upheld was strengthened by a government decision in 2006 to decriminalize defamation cases to ensure journalists would not be sent to prison for defamation.

This encouraged Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) to issue a statement deeming Cambodia the model for other Asian countries to follow in upholding press freedom; an important component of democracy. The group also ranked Cambodia 85 out of 169 countries with press freedom surveyed in 2007.

Cambodia rated far better than the other nine ASEAN member countries, including Indonesia (100), Malaysia (124), the Philippines (128), Thailand (135), Singapore (142), Laos (161), Vietnam (162) and Myanmar (164).

"However, I have to say that Cambodia is not a perfect place for journalists. There were six journalists killed between 1993 and 1997. Since 1997, there have been no journalists murdered; but arrests, threats and lawsuits are still concerns for Cambodian journalists," said Samitthy.

The press freedom trend has since experienced a change from the use of violence to the use of the legal system. In 2006, there were seven lawsuits filed against Cambodian journalists, an arrest of a journalist and 12 cases of threats against journalists.

Fortunately, there were cases that could be solved out of court through negotiations, in which the CCJ served as the mediator.

However, Cambodian courts prefer to apply the penal code rather than the Law on Press. As a result, journalists can be imprisoned if they are found guilty.

Another concern is there are some articles in the Law on Press that can be applied to imprison journalists. An example is article 12 of the law regarding national security and political stability, which gives the courts permission to prosecute journalists whose reports harm national security and political stability.

Cambodian journalists can also be imprisoned if they have been sued by a member of the public and proven guilty of defamation.

Cambodian journalists not only face legal lawsuits, but also have limited access to information. Article 5 of the press law stipulates that journalists have to wait one month to obtain requested information from government officials.

The CCJ, Samitthy said, was considering establishing its own regulations to help journalists avoid lawsuits.

"An important step is to set up a national code of conduct for Cambodian journalists and a mechanism to enforce the code of conduct through the establishment of a self-regulatory body, known as a press council, which will monitor and deal with the issues between journalists and members of the public," he said.

This is the lesson from Cambodia. But what about press freedom in India, an Asian country dubbed as the world's largest democracy?

"The Indian Constitution, which came into force in 1950, stipulates that all citizens have the right to freedom of speech and expression," Mukund Padmanabhan, Senior Associate Editor of The Hindu, said at the conference.

"Yet, the constitution does not have a specific provision for the freedom of the press. Press freedom is a defined right in India as it has its roots in the right to freedom of speech and expression of the citizen."

Mukund specifically highlighted three laws -- the Contempt Law, Defamation Law and Privilege Law -- that had the potential to hamper press freedom in India, as they could be used to prosecute or even imprison journalists for their reports.

Meanwhile, press freedom in Malaysia and Singapore, which both impose an internal security act, remains a difficult issue to resolve.

The Reporters Without Borders group quoted Singaporean leaders as saying economic prosperity had to be paid for with freedom.

"I'm often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yet, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn't be here today," it quoted a statement by former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.

Lee's remark, according to Reporters Without Borders, sums up the policy of the country's longtime ruler -- that civil liberties are never a priority and that a good citizen should always remember national interests are more important.

This has remained the government's attitude since Lee partly handed over power to his successors in 1990, after ruling for 31 years.

Similarly, press freedom in Malaysia has been criticized as the press there has been heavily influenced by the government, in the name of prosperity and stability.

In the Philippines, however, as both judicial and press regulations have developed toward freedom of the press, problems that still hamper press freedom focus more around security and safety for media employees and organizations.

A report compiled by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) revealed that five Philippine journalists were killed last year, increasing the total number of journalists killed under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration to 54.

Indonesia's reform movement in 1998 led to the revocation of the Information Minister's decree on media publishing licenses; the most effective tool of the New Order government in controlling the media.

Yet, reforms have also led people to exercise their rights independently, including the filing of both criminal and civil lawsuits by parties or individuals dissatisfied with media reports.

Cambodian journalists urged to join fight against corruption [-Will pro-CPP newspaper dare expose CPP corruption all the way to the top?]

Tue, 23 Oct 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's most powerful journalism organisation has weighed into the battle against the country's endemic corruption, urging journalists to expose graft and announcing large cash prizes in a statement published Tuesday. Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ) president Pen Samitthy published details of the competition in the country's largest selling Khmer-language daily, Rasmei Kampuchea. Samitthy is also the editor-in-chief of that newspaper.

"To effectively fight against corruption, we need the support of the media," Samitty wrote in his prologue. "Please, all journalists, expose corruption. We must all respond, not just the government."

He also called on the Cambodian National Assembly and the international community to support local journalists who dared to root out corruption at all levels of society.

A first prize of 1,100 dollars plus a trophy were on offer for the best anti-corruption investigative journalism piece, and all stories must be submitted anonymously, Samitthy wrote.

The CCJ boasts more than a thousand members and receives support from the US embassy and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation amongst others. Rasmei Kampuchea is viewed as being close to the ruling Cambodian People's Party by media analysts.

Cambodia was ranked at 162 out of 180 countries by Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International in its recently released 2007 index. Rampant graft has been blamed for the country's failure to attract more much-needed foreign direct investment.

Cambodia's Battling Broadcasters

In a country with few critical new soruces, Radio Free Asia is taking on tough stories. As RFA puts the government on edge, its reporters are on edge.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

Posted October 10, 2007
By Shawn W. Crispin
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

The threat came into Lem Pichpisey’s cell phone just days after he aired an investigative series about alleged government complicity in the illegal logging of a nationally protected forest. The anonymous caller told Lem, a reporter for Radio Free Asia (RFA), that he “could be killed” if he continued his critical news coverage from the area.

Lem traced the number to a roadside vendor in Phnom Penh who rented mobile phones by the minute to unregistered customers. The vendor could identify the caller only as a young Khmer man who sped off on a motorcycle after placing the call.

Lem was already on edge. After his undercover reports from the Prey Long reserve in central Kompong Thom province had caused a national stir, a source tipped him that government security officials were taking great interest in his work. His anxiety mounting, Lem fled in June to Thailand, where he remained for more than a month.

Despite calls from local and international press organizations, including CPJ, the Cambodian government has yet to launch an independent investigation into the death threat. Lem has since resumed reporting in Cambodia, but to limit the risk, senior editors have reduced his regular broadcasts from five to three stories per week and taken him off the Prey Long beat.

Despite the potential danger, Lem felt compelled to return to his home in Battambang province. “If I had stayed away from Cambodia any longer, I wouldn’t be able to help report the truth about my country’s problems,” he said in an interview with CPJ.
Lem’s story is a familiar one among the Cambodia-based reporters for RFA, the U.S. government-funded broadcaster. Since 2005, three of the station’s 14 regular and on-call reporters have fled the country due to concerns over potential government reprisals.

Journalists have often been caught in the crossfire of Cambodia’s violent political history. Reporters were rounded up and slaughtered during the Khmer Rouge’s notorious reign of terror from 1975 to 1979 and were frequently attacked in the more than decade-long civil war that followed the December 1978 invasion by Vietnam, which ousted the radical Maoist regime and installed Hun Sen as prime minister.

By 1993, U.N.-sponsored democratic elections had ushered in a new parliamentary system of government and a constitution that guaranteed free expression. The 1993 Press Law, which provides a legal framework for press freedom, forbids censorship and protects confidentiality of sources. In practice, however, enforcement of these legal guarantees is highly inconsistent. Cambodian journalists still work in a hostile environment, particularly in far-flung provincial areas where corrupt officials are involved in illegal activities and where the rule of law is weak.

Between October 2005 and January 2006, Hun Sen ordered the imprisonment of three journalists, two in connection with their reports on a controversial border treaty with Vietnam. The unsolved killings of six newspaper editors and reporters—from the country’s democratic transition in 1993 through the violent 1997 coup launched by Hun Sen against Prince Norodom Ranariddh, then the country’s co-prime minister—still hangs over Cambodia’s media like a sword. Ministry of Information officials frequently harass editors over stories that cast the government in an unfavorable light.

That is particularly true for RFA, whose journalists often report under pseudonyms for fear they could be the target of government retaliation.

An angry Hun Sen pointing at RFA's reporter Um Sarin in front of the National Assembly, calling him "insolent" and "rude" (Photo: Sralanh Khmer newspaper)

During a question-and-answer session with local journalists in front of the country’s National Assembly in May, Hun Sen referred to RFA staffer Um Sarin as “insolent” and “rude” after the reporter questioned him about the details of a government shakeup. In the exchange, which was later broadcast on government-affiliated television stations, the premier pointed his finger at the reporter and called RFA’s reporting “insolent.”

As the premier’s bodyguards surrounded the reporter, Hun Sen warned Um Sarin that he should be afraid to ask similar questions in the future. For RFA journalists, the national attention given the incident raised fears of possible reprisals from pro-government groups. Um Sarin soon fled Cambodia for Thailand.

“We sometimes hit on the weak points of the government—corruption, poor governance, poverty, joblessness—which reflects on the government’s overall poor performance,” Um Sarin said. “We often contradict the government-controlled media, and that is the main reason Hun Sen is so angry with RFA.”

Hun Sen has consolidated his political power at the ballot box. His Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and businesspeople loyal to the party who hold government-administered print and broadcast licenses now dominate the Khmer-language media landscape. There are 20 or so regularly published local-language newspapers, all but two of which are heavily slanted in favor of Hun Sen and the CPP.

The same is true for the country’s 11 television stations, which broadcast news that unfailingly casts Hun Sen’s government in a favorable light—portraying senior CPP officials opening new public works projects, meeting with admiring local citizens, and greeting foreign dignitaries. One leading news station is run by the prime minister’s daughter, while others are owned by senior CPP members or their close business associates.

But the CPP-led government does not have a monopoly on radio news. High illiteracy and poverty rates mean that radio reaches more Cambodians than any other news source. According to a 2006 survey conducted by Washington-based media consultants InterMedia, 29 percent of Cambodia’s 14 million people listen to international radio stations on a weekly basis.

RFA and the U.S. government-funded Voice of America are neck and neck in claiming the country’s largest listening audience, according to the survey. RFA’s reports are aired twice daily, once in the morning and again in the evening, over privately run Beehive FM 105 and on shortwave beamed from Washington.

InterMedia’s survey found that more than 31 percent of the population listened to RFA on a regular basis, while 56 percent of the population living within a 50-mile (80-kilometer) radius of Phnom Penh regularly tuned in. RFA’s Khmer service director, Sos Kem, said in an e-mail from Washington that he expects that RFA’s listening audience will grow substantially because Beehive Radio has recently increased its broadcasting power from 5 to 10 megawatts, extending the station’s coverage to more remote provinces.

Established in Cambodia soon after Hun Sen launched his 1997 coup, RFA immediately introduced a new, grassroots style of radio reporting, including on-the-ground sound bites from people affected by the news. RFA’s recent fare has included such reports from villagers affected by state-backed land grabs, illegal logging, and alleged official corruption. This unfettered approach to the news has, over the years, lured listeners away from state-controlled stations, which still focus on senior government officials’ statements and activities.

Cambodian Minister of Information Khieu Kanarith did not respond to CPJ’s requests for an interview, but the government is clearly not enamored of RFA’s work. In February 1999, RFA negotiated a contract with the Ministry of Information that would have allowed the broadcaster to establish its own FM station in Phnom Penh—only to see the ministry back out days later because of political concerns.

RFA soon moved to lease FM airtime from Phnom Penh-based Beehive Radio. As if in a chess match, the Ministry of Information then banned Beehive Radio from carrying the reports. Only after Beehive’s owner, Mam Sonando, lodged a formal complaint with parliament—citing provisions of the 1993 Press Law—was the station allowed to resume its broadcasts of RFA news reports.

Still, RFA’s broadcasts over Beehive Radio are aired on a 30-minute time lag from when they are originally transmitted from Washington—giving the Ministry of Information time to monitor RFA news reports before they go out over the national airwaves.

Pen Samitthy, editor-in-chief of Rasmei Kampuchea, Cambodia’s leading pro-government daily newspaper, and a Hun Sen associate, said that several government officials believe RFA’s coverage is slanted against the CPP and in favor of the political opposition. He cited in particular the station’s coverage leading up to last year’s commune elections, including reports that pro-CPP groups threatened opposition canvassers and intimidated their grassroots supporters into staying away from the polls. “They aired several stories that did not make the prime minister very happy,” Pen Samitthy said.

According to RFA editors in Washington and Phnom Penh, their reporters are frequently singled out for harassment by government officials. In December 2006, Hun Sen’s bodyguards prevented Lem from reporting on the opening of a new government-funded building in Battambang province. This past April, the premier’s bodyguards blocked RFA reporter Sok Ratha from covering the opening ceremony of a road project in remote Ratanakiri province.

Phnom Penh-based RFA field editor Ath Bonny said that news reports about illegal logging, malnutrition in impoverished areas, and human rights abuses have resulted in angry, and sometimes threatening, calls from senior Ministry of Information officials.

“They ask me: ‘Why do you report like this? You are Khmer. Don’t you know this makes a bad international image for your country?’” said Ath Bonny, recalling a recent exchange with an official. “I said to him, ‘That’s what the people are saying and it’s the reality of the situation—that we are just doing our jobs as journalists, and that this is our country, too.”

Ath Bonny said RFA listeners often seek out the station’s reporters with their individual stories about local-level corruption. “Nowadays, the people don’t complain to the government or police, they complain to RFA,” he said. “Many people see us as a direct channel to communicate with their national leaders, and I think that makes the government nervous.”

RFA works out of an unmarked office in a multistory townhouse in the heart of Phnom Penh. Office managers affix RFA’s logo to the office’s steel-caged front door when guest speakers are scheduled for studio interviews, but quickly take it down after they have safely arrived, according to Ath Bonny.

“This is Cambodia—it is very difficult to judge who might make trouble for us,” he said. “We are often afraid, but we still do our work professionally.”

Like other RFA reporters, Ath Bonny speaks from personal experience. In October 2005, Hun Sen ordered the arrest and detention of Beehive Radio’s Mam Sonando and several civil-society activists for comments they made about a controversial border treaty with neighboring Vietnam. RFA had aired similar reports; Ath Bonny fled to Thailand for a time after a palace source told him that he, too, was in the government’s sights.

The arrests, though, sparked a bit of a backlash. Some local journalists said that Hun Sen’s government has since attempted a more sophisticated—or, at least, less overtly repressive—approach to its relations with the media. Under pressure from Western donor countries, which still contribute roughly half of the Cambodian government’s annual budget, the prime minister agreed in January 2006 to release Mam Sonando and the others. In August, he vowed to decriminalize defamation—although reporters could still be jailed on “disinformation” or broadly construed incitement charges.

“There’s been a change, at least in the language used,” said Charles McDermid, managing editor of the Phnom Penh Post, an English-language newspaper. “Now they’re at least talking about democracy.”

And Lem is still trying to break daring stories. In August, he aired a news report about alleged government involvement in illegal logging in southern Porsat province. “Where the government tries to hide, we try to show,” he said. “That’s the power of Cambodian radio.”

Shawn W. Crispin is CPJ’s Asia program consultant. He conducted this research mission in August.