The National Police will launch its own 12-page color daily newspaper on Saturday, its editor-in-chief said Sunday, with the first issue marking 70 years since a national police force was created under Japanese occupation.
Ath Buny, a former reporter at Bayon TV who will serve as the paper’s editor-in-chief, said that the “National Police Newspaper” will begin with a special extended edition celebrating the anniversary before moving on to regular coverage of crime, security and public order.
“On May 16 the National Police Newspaper will officially print to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the creation of the National Police,” Mr. Buny said.
In 2006, King Norodom Sihamoni decreed the official date of the creation of the National Police to be May 16, 1945, when a nominally independent Cambodian government under Japanese occupation formed its own force.
“For the first print run, we will write about the history of the National Police, the achievements of the National Police, and the history of the general department of immigration, the general department of identification and the general department of prisons,” Mr. Buny said.
“Officially, we will print 12 pages, but for this special issue we will print between 24 and 32 pages.”
Mr. Buny said that the newspaper would not cover politics but will cover any activities undertaken by police—even featuring cultural pieces, if police are involved.
“It will focus on security [and] the activities of the police…. It is a police newspaper. So, we will report about the police,” the new editor-in-chief said. “It will report about sports or arts, if it involves the police.”
The newspaper will cost 1,000 riel (about $0.25) and be funded both by the government and advertisements.
Kompong Cham provincial police chief Ben Rath said he supported the police creating its own newspaper after about a year of operating its own news website.
“We are ready to send the news. We have been sending news [for the website] for almost a year—mostly news related to security and public order,” Mr. Rath said.
“I’m happy to see the National Police Newspaper. Before, we had a security news program on TV, then we had a website, but now we have a newspaper,” he said.
