The government expects to convene an interministerial meeting this week to discuss ways to combat the distribution of naked photos of Cambodian movie stars and singers, Minister of Women’s Affairs Ung Kantha Phavy said Monday.
The announcement follows a report Friday that police were investigating a mobile telephone shop owner accused of manufacturing nude photographs of Cambodian movie star Chorn Chanleakhena.
“We can’t let these people continue their acts anymore,” Ung Kantha Phavy said by telephone. “Our stance is to keep the values of our tradition and culture.”
She added that the government will campaign to stop the spread of such pornography via mobile phones and the Internet.
The photos would not have emerged without the influence of pornographic movies, which are widely available across the country, the minister said.
“This is because of the distribution of porn videos such as near schools, making the situation of the younger generation decline,” she said.
Keo Thea, deputy police chief of Phnom Penh’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Unit, said Sunday that although four people have been arrested, “educated” and then released for distributing naked photos of Chorn Chanleakhena, the masterminds who created the images are still at large.
The four include the mobile telephone shop owner, You Bunseng, who was found not to have manufactured the images, Keo Thea added.
“They also got the photos from others,” Keo Thea said.
The photos were made using a computer to project Chorn Chanleakhena’s head onto a photo of a naked body, Keo Thea said.
Contacted Monday, Chorn Chanleakhena called the photos an injustice, and called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to help.
“I would like to ask the related authorities to try more to arrest the perpetrators,” she said.
“This is a personal matter of my family, but I would ask Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene,” she said. “He is like our parents.”
So Lida, a singer and presenter on Bayon TV, said Monday that she feared she would be the next target. She added that she had seen a naked photo of singer Chin Siriya in newspapers and on mobile phones last month.
Phnom Penh Municipal Police Commissioner Heng Pov said Monday he did not consider the problem to be particularly serious.
“It’s just the idea of the individual to make profits,” Heng Pov said.
Heng Pov added that on July 22, police arrested a computer technician identified as Malis Malingka, accused of threatening and detaining his girlfriend, then taking naked photos of her.
“He studied computer science so he knows a lot about the computer,” Heng Pov said, adding that he believes Malis Malingka could be linked to the photos of naked stars.
“Regarding the film stars, the photos might come from him…
but still he denies it,” Heng Pov said.
