The Minister of Information has advised all owners of television stations to stop broadcasting the song “Rom Skob” – which means “pause dance” in English – because it uses the Calmette Hospital logo in several scenes of its music video without permission.
In a letter dated March 30, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said that performers in the video, produced by Sunday Production, can be seen wearing uniforms bearing the logo of Calmette Hospital without the hospital’s permission, affecting the honour and dignity of Calmette Hospital employees.
“All television stations, channels and online television owners, please manage to implement this order effectively from this announcement date onwards,” he said.
Calmette Hospital director-general Chheang Ra and Lim Phengchiv, the director of the video, could not be reached for comment.
Bmo Trapz, songwriter of “Rom Skob”, said on his Facebook page that after the broadcast ban, the video director apologised directly, sent a letter of apology to Calmette Hospital, and also deleted the scenes.
“Only video of the song ‘Rom Skob’ has been banned from being broadcasted, but the music has not. So, people can still play the song to dance at any events the same as before,” he said.
In December, the Information Ministry banned owners of all radio and TV stations from broadcasting the song “Kru Bongrean Sroverng Sra”, which translates to drunken teacher in English, claiming it dishonoured and insulted teachers.
The Information Ministry in 2016 also banned all radio and TV stations from broadcasting several other songs from Town Production following criticism from the public that their content affected morality in the country.
