The former deputy director of a national radio station said Tuesday he was removed from his position last week after a popular commentator read on air a story believed to have been critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Also Tuesday, the ambassadors of Germany and Japan publicly expressed their hopes for a free and fair election, and the US ambassador met with the manager of a radio station in a round of courtesy visits to media outlets.
Nouv Sovathero, former deputy director of state-owned 96 FM and a former Funcinpec member, was transferred from the station to an administrative position in the Ministry of Information following “an order from the top,” Minister of Information Lu Laysreng said.
Lu Laysreng said he was unlawfully bypassed in the decision, which was carried out during a national holiday last week.
“His removal is not correct, because the ministry did not even know about it,” Lu Laysreng said, adding that he was unaware of any possible misconduct to merit the removal.
Khieu Kanharith, secretary of state for the ministry, said Nouv Sovathero’s removal was a regular management decision, and noted that he was not demoted.
Nouv Sovathero said he was displeased and confused about the change. Although an official reason for his removal remains unclear, Nouv Sovathero claims it is tied to a recent radio show featuring Ek Mongkol—the “Golden Voice” of Cambodian radio—during which the commentator read a newspaper article about the marriage of two blind people.
Someone interpreted the story as an attack on Hun Sen, who lost an eye as a young Khmer Rouge fighter, Nouv Sovathero said.
Ek Mongkol, a longtime Funcinpec supporter who was shot on a busy Phnom Penh street in 1996, has fled and is in hiding, he said. That claim could not be substantiated Tuesday.
Nouv Sovathero, who describes himself as politically unaffiliated, said he lured the commentator back onto the air, but only after Ek Mongkol insisted on commentating solely on apolitical news.
Ek Mongkol regularly read from various newspapers on air, but did not offer political commentary, he said. The radio personality, known for his soft voice and harsh criticisms, went into a coma after the 1996 shooting, an attack that officials called an assassination attempt.
Media outlets are currently receiving courtesy visits by US Ambassador Charles Ray, who said Tuesday he was getting a feel for the pre-election climate.
Ray met with the general manager of the pro-Funcinpec radio station Ta Prohm 90.5 FM on Tuesday. Though embassy officials said the two talked generally about intimidation, the station’s general manager, Noranarith Anandayath, who is also a senior adviser to Prince Norodom Ranariddh, said he discussed his concern that police in Phnom Penh were forbidding people to listen to the station.
“Even in the Central Market, police are going around telling people not to listen to Ta Prohm,” he said. But “the more they tell people not to listen, the more they want to listen.”
A handful of Funcinpec officials gathered at the station to meet Ray, including Funcinpec Senator Khieu San, who was escorting on the air two women who said CPP officials had given them kramas in exchange for their votes.
Ta Prohm started this year as the first pro-royalist radio station since July 1997, when the party lost its media outlets after factional fighting.
NEC spokesman Leng Sochea said he had not received any formal complaints from the station, but called the allegation “unbelievable.”
“You listen to radio in your home, so how do the police know?” he said. “This kind of report I do not believe.”
Observers are still waiting to see how the NEC will handle cases of intimidation. A Trabak commune official in Kamchay Mear district, Prey Veng province, is under investigation for confiscating 280 villagers’ voter cards and using their photos to make Funcinpec party membership cards.
Election officials acknowledge that Kut Ky, a Funcinpec second deputy commune chief, confiscated the cards in August 2002, but say they were unaware of the activity until this month.
Monitors say Kut Ky should be removed from his post, though no hearing has been held. An official with the Prey Veng Provincial Election Committee said Tuesday it was completing an investigation and would soon consult the NEC.
Also on Tuesday, the German ambassador hinted that the conduct of the elections could influence the future of his country’s aid program.
“Germany, as part of the donor community, supports the royal government,” Helmut Ohlraun said. Fair elections “will certainly encourage Germany and other donors to continue their support,” he said.
Ohlraun was speaking as part of a panel at a news conference sponsored by the Cambodian Communications Institute and the Canada-based NGO Impacs at the Sunway Hotel.
Another monitoring mission, sponsored by the US-based International Republican Institute, is scheduled to arrive and will be led by the outgoing head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, IRI’s resident director Johanna Kao said Tuesday.
Christie Whitman, the former governor of the US state of New Jersey and EPA chief, will likely spend five or six days here, Kao said.
“We’re very pleased she’ll be working with us,” she said.
And at a news conference Tuesday, all 23 competing political parties signed a code of conduct to be upheld throughout the monthlong campaigning period and beyond.
The code prohibits parties from using violence and intimidation, or bribes and vote-buying. It does not, however, outline any methods of enforcement.
(Additional reporting by Lor Chandara)
