Four months after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the Ministry of Information to invalidate the licenses of pornographic magazines and take them out of circulation, a new steamy publication has hit newsstands.
Entitled “Ripe and Unripe,” the 32-page magazine debuted two weeks ago and features sex-related stories.
Lim El Djurado, the publisher of two earlier magazines, “Teenage Stimulation” and “Rooster,” that closed in the midst of Hun Sen’s anti-smut move, said on Tuesday that the new publication was put together by his daughter.
Lim El Djurado declined to name his daughter saying only that she is a student of English literature at Pannasastra University.
“My daughter is the one who creates it,” said Lim El Djurado, who is also director of the Ministry of Social Affair’s Department of Statistics and Planning.
Lim El Djurado said he did not believe “Ripe and Unripe” would be shut down.
“It is good. Our photos educate a lot,” he said. “There is no reason to shut it down.”
The magazine states that it obtained permission to print on May 26 from the Ministry of Information.
Presenting a somewhat more wholesome image, the magazine includes a story about Lim El Djurado’s boss, Social Affairs Minister Ith Sam Heng, meeting with 300 families from across the country May 15.
However, the story does not say what the meeting was about.
Attempts to contact “Ripe and Unripe” were unsuccessful on Tuesday.
In the weeks following Hun Sen’s Feb 8 order to crack down on pornographic magazines, which he said do more social damage than sex videos, Lim El Djurado’s “Teenage Stimulation” and “Rooster” came under fire.
Both publications were halted when Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said publishers would be fined if they continued printing.
On Tuesday, Lim El Djurado said he also has plans to re-launch the two flagship magazines in the future.
Khieu Kanharith could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
