Phnom Penh Municipality has banned the use of loudspeakers mounted on trucks for advertising purposes, Municipal Governor Kep Chuktema said Tuesday.
A municipal order issued Monday states that the government will confiscate all loudspeaker trucks being used to promote movies and other unspecified products.
“We have received a lot of complaints from Phnom Penh residents to stop such loud advertising along Phnom Penh’s streets,” Kep Chuktema said. “There are a lot of other ways to advertise.”
Kep Chuktema said the ban will not apply to rights groups and is not designed to limit freedom of expression.
The legislation comes a week after the municipality confiscated a Cambodian Center for Human Rights truck with mounted loudspeaker spreading anti-corruption statements that was set to travel around the city.
The municipality said the truck could have caused traffic jams. Some 50 police and military police stopped the truck Sept 4 near the CCHR’s offices saying the organization did not have permission for the event.
CCHR spokesman Ou Virak said Tuesday that the loudspeaker ban could be used to clamp down on rights groups. “Our organization will organize a campaign for freedom of expression someday to test whether City Hall will use this directive as an excuse to stop us from holding a campaign,” he said.
Loudspeaker trucks in Phnom Penh are most commonly used to promote movies. The ban has prompted concern with at least one person working in Cambodia’s movie industry, who has seen several theaters close in the last year.
Bun Sear, president of Kampul Pich Theater on Monivong Boulevard and a director at the Dara Video Film Production company, said loudspeaker trucks had provided cheap and effective advertising for cinemas. The number of moviegoers to his theater has been decreasing recently, he added.
“The cost of advertising through television and radio are really expensive,” he said. “But we must follow and respect the order,” he added.
