A Shattered Image

Im Sothearith
Ohio University

CAMBODIA is a country that has been a laboratory for ideologies and a variety of political structures. It has been through feudalism, absolute monarchy, colonialism, populism, republicanism, Leninist, Marxist and Maoist socialism, and constitutional monarchy. Cambodia’s modern history has also been scarred by almost 30 years of civil war, which led not only to the hindrance of its development, but also to the destruction of all areas of its society, including the media.

Like other emerging democratic countries, Cambodia’s political pluralism is a relatively recent development and the notion of the media as society’s watchdog is not well understood by neither the government nor many media practitioners themselves.

In general, the free exchange of ideas and information is a wise policy for a democratic government to uphold. Ordinary citizens can make good decisions about their nation if they are well informed, and are able to share their thoughts with others, including their leaders. These could be done through the media. Society’s capacity to understand and respond to events and issues, however, can be no greater than the ability of media practitioners to identify, comprehend and explain those events and issues. The need therefore is for the media to be reliable and ethical in gathering and disseminating the information citizens need to understand their world.

There was a time when the media in Cambodia were such, and were highly respected and trusted by the public. When I was young, my grandfather had told me to try to study hard in order to become a journalist. He saw how Cambodians honored journalists, who were considered highly professional and ethical. This was all before 1975, when Cambodia’s short but harrowing descent to hell began.

Between 1975 and 1978, Cambodia came under the control of the ruthless Khmer Rouge, which dismantled all known social structures in the country and replaced it with its own totalitarian system. During its reign, there was a paucity of publications of all kinds, and the media came under state control.

After the Khmer Rouge government was toppled, many mass media were revived, starting with the SPK and Kampuchea newspaper. Then came the establishment of radio stations, after which came the TVK. All these, however, were still controlled by the state.

The UN years

A major turning point for Cambodia (and the media) came in 1992, when the United Nations peacekeeping force arrived to help prepare the country for its first democratic elections in decades. After the UN forces arrived, freedom expression exploded along with multi-party politics. Numerous local and international private media companies – print and broadcast -- were established. Even though their publications and broadcasts frequently spread inaccurate news, rumors, and sometimes even committed slander, Cambodians were still kept better informed than before about what was happening across the country.

In time, the publications and the radio and TV stations began to reveal scandals about the former government and identifying corrupt individuals. In the past, corrupt government officials had not been afraid of anyone, not even the courts, which were perceived to be corrupt as well. But this time around, corrupt officials became fearful of the media.

The fear of any of their wrongdoings being exposed by the media, however, resulted not in reforms among politicians but in attempts to corrupt journalists. Some political parties also went to the extent of trying to set up media companies of their own. Soon, articles were being written and published largely because money was being exchanged between journalists and politicians. Many of the local news being broadcast by the radio and TV stations or published by the newspapers also became blatantly politicized, with no palpable effort at all to present information in an unbiased and impartial way. At the same, the increasing competition between media companies led to frequent exchanges of insults in print. Whatever points the media gained among the public in the early 1990s were thus lost.

Education as a way to increase professionalism

To change this situation is a long-term proposition. One step forward is by increasing awareness of media’s importance. Another is increasing professionalism among media practitioners. But many Cambodian journalists today are sorely lacking even in skills, which only tend to result in haphazard reporting.

Fortunately, the country’s leaders have not resorted to a crackdown to keep erring media companies in check. Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen said at the official opening ceremony of the Department of Media and Communication at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), “The best way to change the image of journalism is to educate journalists, not to shut down newspapers.”

We at the RUPP’s media and communication department, established in April 2001, obviously could not agree more. And as a response to the prime minister’s challenge, we are offering the first bachelor’s program in media management in Cambodia. The department has also established partnerships with schools abroad in its efforts to upgrade media education. So far, its partners include the University of Mittweida in Germany, Ohio University in the United States, and the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. We are also working closely with all the media agencies and media businesses in the country. These are but small steps, to be sure, but they are nevertheless crucial in making the media in Cambodia worthy once more of the public’s trust.