The Ministry of Information has organised a workshop on professional ethics and press freedom in the Kingdom.

“Professional practices and Freedom of the Press within the Legal Framework of Cambodia” was attended by169 journalists and government officials.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said: “It is a historic day that we are all meeting to discuss the challenges journalists face during their duty.”

“The media plays a very important role so they must be free and independent. We are not far from a Democracy society,” he said. “The word independent doesn’t mean they are against the government.”

“There are many complaints to the Information Ministry saying ‘Why Journalists? Every Cambodian citizen should have access to information, not only journalists’,” said Kanharith.

“Other countries do not allow journalists to take photos at a murder scene,” he said. “I saw journalists who were arrested when they did a live report in front the provincial office. That was wrong.”

“If the authorities do not want to allow the journalists to take photographs, then they must write a sign ‘no photos’. Then (the journalists) cannot take them and another sign if journalists can take (photos),” said Kanharith.

Cambodian Journalists Alliance (CamboJA) executive director Nop Vy said that 84 journalists were harassed on a monthly basis from January to November 2021.

“Journalists are facing challenges in 2020-2021 when they cover the news in the field. In total, 84 journalists faced harassment. They were arrested, killed and threatened,” said Vy.

Sao Phal Niseiy, editor-in-chief of Cambodianess, the English-language edition of Thmey Thmey online, said the quality of news reporting is a challenge for the new generation of journalists.

“It is different now from when the older journalists (were reporting),” he said, adding that news should provide checks and balances, true information and beneficial knowledgeable for the readers.

“How do we want to produce quality news? For example, news about climate change, public health, the Covid-19 pandemic? We see all this but there is still a lack of information even though journalists cover the news everyday about the new infections of Covid-19,” said Niseiy.

UNSECO Cambodia spokesman Mike Aguirre Idiaquez said: “We have dialogue between authorities and the media like today.”

“We see that there is a need to address each other and for journalists to understand the legal framework, and for authorities to have the same understanding. We must all understand what is the role of a journalist,” Idiaquez said.

• Tags: journalists, press freedom