NGO groups, along with election monitors, expressed concern this week that political coverage by state-run and private news organizations remains biased in favor of the ruling party. Their opinions are partially based on the findings of a survey conducted by the NGO umbrella organization Star Kampuchea.
Star Kampuchea officials say that the results of their survey indicate that the three main political parties do not have equal access to the media as a means to promote their platforms.
Star Kampuchea interviewed around 100 people in August, aged 18 to 72, in five provinces. Their study found that 43 percent of those surveyed said they received information on the CPP’s political platform through local newspapers, compared to 34 percent who said they learned about Funcinpec through newspapers and 29 percent who learned about the Sam Rainsy Party the same way.
Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said they learned about the CPP’s platform through television programming, compared to 41 percent who learned about Funcinpec and 29 percent who learned about Sam Rainsy Party policy. Seventy percent of those surveyed said they learned about the CPP over the radio, compared to 48 percent who learned about Funcinpec and 29 percent who learned about the Sam Rainsy Party.
Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son Chhay said he believes that the CPP controls the great majority of all political broadcast time on TVK, the national television station. TVK, he said, saves only 5 percent and 1 percent of political broadcasting for Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party, respectively.
“The media system belongs to the CPP,” he said.
In 1998, on the eve of national elections, the UN released a report with similar findings. The UN concluded that the CPP dominated the private news organizations, out-numbering appearances by other party representatives nearly 18 to one.
Among its findings, the report noted that Apsara TV and radio along with Bayon TV and radio—both private companies—featured CPP figures a total of 446 times, while mentioning the other parties only 25 times in the first half of the month before the election.
The UN report said that the state-run TVK and National Radio, though they had cut political coverage prior to the election, provided relatively balanced information.
Minister of Information Lu Laysreng, however, said recently that the system is working just fine. It is normal, he said, for the ruling party to control the media. If his Funcinpec party were victorious in the upcoming national elections, he would expect that they would have the monopoly on air time, he said
“All parties are the same, including my party,” Lu Laysreng said. “If we win the election, we will have the power in our hand, so we will be able to do more than other parties, including [controlling] the media.”
Lu Laysreng, however, puts some of the blame for biased coverage on the National Election Committee—the government’s election body.
“I want to have debates with all the political parties and I have told them that. It is the NEC’s responsibility to provide the debate schedule, not the Ministry of Information’s.”
NEC member Prum Nhean Vichet said the NEC—an organization designed to be neutral—is meant to preserve the balance of access to the media for all parties, and acknowledged that it was the NEC’s responsibility to make sure parties have access to the media in order to promote their platform.
He pointed to two relevant articles of Cambodian election law—the first indicating that state-controlled media has to broadcast or print, free of charge, information on election related issues suggested by the NEC.
Another article states that the NEC is required to take necessary measures to disseminate information provided by political parties in a fair an unbiased fashion.
But Prum Nhean Vichet countered accusations of widespread bias toward the ruling party by saying the NEC has no mandate to control the content of privately controlled media outlets.
“The NEC has no right to force private radio, television or newspapers to balance their broadcasting or publishing of political information. If the private companies love a certain party, they have the right to broadcast their information without our intervention,” he said.
Son Chhay, however, disagrees. “The NEC is responsible for both national and private media systems,” he said. “It is not fair if the NEC allows those private companies to broadcast only one party.”
Access to the media system for political parties during the upcoming elections is a main concern for all parties, observers and civil society organizations, Son Chhay said.
“Therefore, the government must have the good will to reform the media, starting with national radio and television.”
TVK must run programs such as roundtable meetings between political parties, Son Chhay said. Also, TVK should broadcast interviews with politicians from all parties in order to ask them how they can solve the problems in Cambodia—poverty for example, or deforestation and corruption.
Koul Panha, executive director of the election monitor Comfrel, is also critical of the media’s political coverage. Most radio and television stations broadcast images of officials or candidates wives doing good works like disaster and poverty relief—but they never address why poverty affects so many Cambodians.
“Most people think that pagodas are a good place for politicians to gather support, because the media only broadcasts politicians’ wives giving offerings to monks,” he said.
“Both national and private media systems give too little broadcast time to elections, campaigns and to educating people about elections,” Koul Panha said. “This is not a way for Cambodia to move toward a true democracy.”
Most people interviewed by Star Kampuchea said that political information must be widely disseminated, without discrimination, and all parties should be given equal broadcast time, particularly on the radio, said Yoib Meta, advocacy and information program coordinator for Star Kampuchea.
National media outlets should also maintain neutrality and not be beholden to powerful parties or organizations.
Some NGOs under the Star Kampuchea umbrella had prepared educational programs about elections, or roundtable meetings before February’s commune council elections.
But these lacked the NEC’s support, were rejected by private media outlets and not seen by the public, Yoib Meta said.
“The NEC told us that our election programs would cause turmoil in Cambodia if they were broadcast. Both the national and private media systems are under the control of the current ruling political party,” he said.
A TVK official who declined to be identified admitted that though TVK is state-run and supposed to serve the whole nation, the station is at the behest of the CPP. “We have to broadcast their activities to stay alive,” he said.
