In a speech marking World Press Freedom Day on Thursday, SRP lawmaker Son Chhay accused the government of exerting control over the media and said the Information Ministry is unnecessary and infringes on journalists’ freedoms.
Son Chhay told a Phnom Penh conference that the Information Ministry has no clear role, and also questioned whether it should be abolished following the 2008 national elections.
“The Information Ministry is not necessary and many other countries don’t have [one],” Son Chhay said.
“Besides reducing the freedom of journalists, it seems they don’t have any role,” he added.
The government controls radio and television networks strictly, but takes a softer approach with newspapers because of the country’s low literacy rate, he added.
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights issued a statement Wednesday calling on the government to abolish the Information Ministry.
“In present Cambodia, it is a major obstacle to freedom of press that one and the same minister controls the flow of information and decides who shall be allowed to run a radio or a TV station,” the CCHR’s new president Ou Virak claimed in the statement.
Information Minister and government spokesman Khieu Kanharith did not attend Thursday’s conference.
However, he said by telephone that his ministry was necessary, adding that Son Chhay did not know what he was talking about.
“We don’t control information and we don’t control the press,” he said.
“[Son Chhay] doesn’t know about the role of the Ministry of Information,” he added, though he said he was too busy to elaborate on what this was.
Information Ministry Undersecretary of State Thieng Vandarong, speaking on behalf of Khieu Kanharith, told the conference that newspapers, television, and radio networks work freely in Cambodia without censorship.
“All media print and broadcast without advance censorship,” he said. “It is easy for all the media people to do their work,” he said, adding that his ministry supports journalists.
Thieng Vandarong did note, however, that the work of some journalists has landed them in hot water.
“The Information Ministry has noticed that the majority of journalists respect the code of their profession,” he said.
“But a minority of journalists have not respected [these codes] causing criticism from the public, lawsuits, and even detention.”
US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said the media plays an important role.
“A free press empowers the powerless, exposes corruption, encourages transparency in governance, and promotes participation in the political process,” he told the conference.
Peter Starr, resident representative for the Independent Journalism Foundation, said Cambodia’s press freedom is getting better. However, he said that ministries need to be more open to journalists, and that journalists who take bribes are acting unethically.
