Claiming that foreign-made programming is poisoning Cambodian culture, Minister of Information Lu Laysreng on Monday threatened again to shut down television stations that broadcast foreign-made films or programs for more than 20 percent of their schedules.
The minister said he would write Prime Minister Hun Sen to get permission to shut down stations that did not obey his order, first handed down last year. Some station managers were still skeptical that he could enforce the order.
Lu Laysreng said that earlier orders had succeeded in significantly reducing the amount of foreign-made programming. The last few years have seen a flourishing of locally made game shows and talent shows. But Cambodian cinema remains an underdeveloped industry, and television schedules are dominated by Thai- and Chinese-made films.
Lu Laysreng said on Monday that foreign-made movies caused viewers to misunderstand their own culture. He especially criticized Chinese films, saying Cambodian youth were imitating the knife and gun violence they saw in the films.
“Foreign movies directly influence all Cambodians, especially the youth,” he said.
TV5 Deputy Director General Chen Marido agreed that more local programming would help Cambodian culture, but said that making the transition would take time. Thai movies already come with their own sponsor, while there are still too few Cambodian programs and companies willing to sponsor them, he said.
“Cambodian programs, like games, need a big budget, and there is a shortage of sponsors,” he said.
Thai films especially have cast a spell on many Cambodian viewers. Chhim Vanda, 24, a garment worker, said Thai films were more realistic, and the characters were more interesting than their Cambodian counterparts.
“I love Thai movies, because the characters match with the feature,” she said.
When poor families are portrayed in Thai programs, they look poor, Chhim Vanda said; in Cambodian films even the poor families wear jewelry.
Station managers say the popularity of Thai films make it inevitable that they will be played. “I don’t want to play foreign films all the time, but people like them, and other stations play them,” said an official with TV9.
But TV3 program manager Fay Sam Eng said the order, if obeyed, would help the fledgling Cambodian film industry. The quality and number of Cambodian films would have to increase as stations demanded more of them and competed for viewers, he said.
But Fay Sam Eng—who is also maker of “Child of the Giant Snake,” hailed as the first major feature film since the Vietnamese military occupation of the 1980s—is familiar with the challenges of getting proper funding for quality movies in Cambodia.
When he offered to sell the film to Cambodian television stations, none would buy, he said. They all claimed to be too poor, he said.
