More than 50 foreign journalists and several dozen Cambodian journalists, government officials and NGO representatives are traveling to Siem Reap today to continue the third Asian-German Editors Forum.
Before departure, most will attend a morning discussion titled “the situation of the media in Cambodia” at the Hotel Le Royal. Panel participants include Pen Samitthy, the editor of Rasmei Kampuchea (Light of Cambodia), and Duong Rattana, a deputy director of the prime minister’s cabinet. Information Minister Lu Laysreng is also expected to attend.
In Siem Reap, forums on “religion, society, democracy and the rule of law in Cambodia” and “the impact of the Khmer Rouge on Cambodia” will be hosted by organizers. Journalist Nate Thayer is scheduled to speak about the guerrilla movement. Thayer interviewed rebel mastermind Pol Pot in October 1997, only months before he died.
Editors from Germany, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and elsewhere are among the participants in the three-day conference, which ends Thursday morning and is organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Additionally, the Asia News Network accepted two new members over the weekend during meetings in Phnom Penh, bringing the number of major Asian newspapers in the regional alliance of same-day news exchange to nine.
The Korea Herald and the Philippine Daily Inquirer joined the network, which described the newspapers as the top English-language dailies in South Korea and the Philippines respectively. Network members include the Jakarta Post, The Nation from Thailand, The Star from Malaysia, The Straits Times from Singapore, the Statesman from India and Viet Nam News from Vietnam.
The Asia News Network was founded in March 1999 with the assistance of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and is the first cooperation of its kind among newspapers in Asia to exchange news, features, op-ed articles and photos on a daily basis, according to a network press release.
