Minister of Women’s Affairs Mu Sochua urged the government this week to crack down on the Svay Pak brothels in Russei Keo district after viewing a Web site detailing the community’s underage sex workers.
The call has prompted some government officials to demand the site’s closure, raising concerns about information censorship.
“As far as the Internet sites are concerned, we cannot regulate that. We can clean up Svay Pak—take away the product by using the law,” Mu Sochua said Tuesday.
The Web site, allegedly created by Western visitors, posts a map of the prepubescent workers on offer in Svay Pak. It reviews restaurants and has separate entries for each of the brothels and their specialized services.
The site declares that at one house, “They are very adamant about you wearing a condom here…. You may not feel that you are getting the best deal Svay Pak has to offer. You are right.”
Mu Sochua said the government could not regulate the Internet but could clean up those areas promoted online.
“The ministry has promoted monitoring these brothels…and saying ‘no’ to any sort of exploitation because closing them totally is not the answer. [But] Svay Pak is a business—a very open business, really—the clientele is specialized and asking for special products, which are young girls,” Mu Sochua said.
Christian Guth, a law enforcement adviser to the Ministry of Interior, estimated that between 500 and 800 girls are employed in Svay Pak’s approximately 30 brothels.
Minister of Tourism Veng Sereyvuth expressed outrage over the effects Svay Pak could have on the tourism industry and called for the Web site’s closure.
“That is indecent information. Close that [Web site]. I care as much about the right to freedom of information, but we must also care about the rights of these children,” he said.
Veng Sereyvuth urged authorities to harshly discipline sex offenders as a sign of intolerance. The money raised by the brothels is not worth the toll they take on Cambodia’s image, he said.
“Through this, the country pays a price at the end of the day because many tourists will avoid visiting the country,” Veng Sereyvuth said.
Ministry of Information Secretary of State Khieu Kanharith said the government holds a “gentleman’s agreement” with service providers to block any Web sites promoting pornography.
“We must ask the Internet service provider to bear the responsibility [of blocking the sites].”
Representatives from Phnom Penh’s four major Internet service providers could not confirm that such a policy existed. An official from CamNet said there was no agreement between his company and the government. “Why should we block the sites?” he asked. “It is the responsibility of the parent to censor the Internet.”
A government information expert doubted the validity of such an informal agreement.
“I do not believe in blocking the Web site. If it is not enforceable, you cannot call it an agreement,” he said. There currently are no written rules controlling the content of Cambodia’s Internet access, he said.
Russei Keo district Police Chief Ly Lay said he supported Svay Pak’s closure but admitted such efforts are complicated by police who take bribes from brothel owners. “I make my commitment to shut down brothel areas in Svay Pak. They are destroying our customs, especially because 100 percent of the prostitutes are Vietnamese. Cambodians never select careers as prostitutes, only Vietnamese,” Ly Lay said.
A Licadho spokesman said a prostitute’s nationality is irrelevant except that it indicates they are less protected than Cambodians. Regardless of the workers’ nationality, “Child prostitution should be pursued in court,” the spokesman said.
Noting that the issue of censorship is in a huge gray area, Licadho could not support blocking the sites but said anyone promoting child prostitution should be punished by law.
Guth suggested that a complete closure of Svay Pak would send women and children scurrying, probably to find work in other brothels. This, he said, would make it more difficult to re-integrate them into society.
“It’s good for the image and promotion of Cambodia to close the brothels, but I am not sure it will be completely advantageous [for the workers],” Guth said. (Additional reporting by Kuch Naren and Seth Meixner)
