Zipped mouth, open mind
I am a citizen of Cambodia and I can say whatever I want, criticize anyone with whom I’m not happy, disagree with parts of my society – as long as I do it in front of close friends or family. It makes me feel free and ready to start working in the morning without concern. But my job is a journalist’s and that creates problems.
I work as a radio producer for a local NGO based in Phnom Penh (The Centre for Justice and Reconciliation). In my role as a young journalist I’m always enthusiastic to pass on all kind of achieved information to the audience, because it is my duty to do so and people have the right to know.
It is not difficult for me to reach people from all corners of the country and have them talking to me about various topics. Some of them have very interesting opinions and some share their views on the society and living conditions. But when I ask them if I can record what they have to say and make an interview for my radio program, they zip their mouths and shake their heads. They tell me that they consider themselves as “ordinary persons” who have no reason to give feedback on the government’s affairs, especially not about issues related to politics.
There are more than 40 radio channels, TV stations and many news agencies in Cambodia, which indicates we actually have enough means to transmit information to people and to have a dialogue, but there is not much of what you can call an independent media. As journalists we identify many problems in our society, but how can we possibly pass the message to people?
“This is a hot issue”, says our director at the radio. I hear this statement quite often and so I started to wonder: “What is really a hot topic?” The answer I got was: anything related to negative aspects of the government’s management – corruption, human rights issues and foreign immigration for example. The director said that if we produce this kind of news on our airtime too often, our NGO might be listed as an opposition organization, and as a small, local NGO we have no strong back up.
On 26 June, 2009 Mr. Hang Chakra, editor-in-chief of the opposition-affiliated Khmer Machas Srok Newspaper was convicted to one year imprisonment and a 9 million riel fine. His crime was that he had published articles, which sought to expose alleged government corruption.
Maybe this case proofs that my director is right. We should avoid hot topics. We must keep our jobs, getting our salaries and support our families. We should produce safe topics of health, entertainment etc and be able to sleep well after broadcasting. And sometimes, when international press exposes a hot topic, we might just dare to follow in their track and publish the hot stories. It isn’t yet the suitable time for me to speak out about whatever I hear and know. My mouth is zipped – but my mind is still open.
Try Vannak
Radio Production Specialist
The Centre for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR)
