The hotly contested border issue has invaded the nation’s television screens. Since Friday, stations including TVK, TV9, Apsara and Bayon have given extensive coverage to a decade’s worth of documents from the 1970s related to the border issue. TV newscasters read the documents word for word, alongside transcripts of the texts.
Prime Minister Hun Sen in a speech Monday said the television blitz was necessary for him to defend himself against an unnamed critic who he said had accused him of ceding Cambodian territory to Vietnam.
“I have no other choice,” Hun Sen said at the National Institute of Technical Training, claiming that the unnamed critic had “pushed Hen Sen to the wall” and that if his critic was not “KO’d” he “won’t stop.”
Citing the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan by US forces during World War II, Hun Sen said an offensive is sometimes the best form of self-defense.
He also said he would continue to broadcast a controversial song from Lon Nol’s Khmer Republic that accuses retired King Norodom Sihanouk of ceding land to Vietnam.
“I’ll have it produced into karaoke,” Hun Sen said. “Don’t be afraid of history.”
Hun Sen said that state-run TVK belonged to the government, but insisted it was not a government mouthpiece.
“Don’t say TVK is a government tool,” he said. “If TVK is not the government’s tool, should it be the opposition’s? TVK belongs to the government.”
Opposition lawmaker Son Chhay had a different take on the matter.
“TVK is being used for communist-style propaganda,” he said, accusing the station of slandering opposition officials, giving fawning coverage to the ruling coalition and ignoring controversial issues such as land grabs and displacements.
TVK Director-General Kem Gunawath defended his programming decisions, saying that anyone could “call his [phone] number” if they objected.