Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh on Thursday confirmed that Funcinpec now controls one radio station—a station that could be used to mount an aggressive media campaign in the run-up to next July’s general elections.
The prince, speaking to journalists at his birthday celebration at Funcinpec headquarters, noted that the station is held by a private company, thereby skirting the rule against political parties having radio licenses.
“This permit has been held since before the last [general] election. They did not just get it,” Minister of Information Lu Laysreng said Thursday. “They keep renewing [the license] but they have never broadcast.”
Information Ministry Secretary of State Khieu Kanharith said the license for the FM 90.5 frequency was issued in 1997 to the private company, whose name he could not recall.
Funcinpec officials did not disclose whether the station would begin broadcasting soon.
Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Tioulong Saumura complained that the opposition party has been trying to get a radio station for years, likewise under the name of a holding company, but has always been turned down.
“We first applied in 1995 or early 1996, and we have applied three or four times,” she said. “Our request was denied under the reason that there are no more frequencies available. Of course that is not true.”
Radio is the most powerful medium in Cambodia because more than half the population is illiterate and few people in rural areas can afford televisions or newspapers, she said.
“The level of access to radio is almost 100 percent—each family or cluster of houses has one, and they listen often,” she said.
Unequal access to mass media was a major donor complaints of February’s commune council elections, and is expected to be a major election issue next year.
The opposition party continues to complain that the ruling CPP has a near-monopoly on radio and television broadcasts, and unfairly uses the media to push its political agenda.
