Op-Ed by Khmerization
20th February 2010
“I hope the Phnom Penh Post would not take this as a swipe, but as a friendly advice from one of its loyal readers.”
The Phnom Penh Post is virtually Cambodia’s window to the rest of the outside world. No doubt that it has done an excellent job in the field of objective reporting and information dissemination from Cambodia to the English-speaking world. However, in regard to Cambodia-Vietnam and Cambodia-Thai relations and conflicts, the Phnom Penh Post’s political correctness and its quest for objective reporting has led it to walk a political tightrope and fine line to the point of favouring Cambodia’s neighbours at the expense of Cambodia’s national interests and that of the Cambodian people.
The recent Phnom Penh Post’s political correctness has led it to cause a controversy when one of its editors defined the word “Yuon” as “a racist epithet for the Vietnamese”.
Another example of its fine line policy led it to print a news story about the Vietnamese bans of Khmer Krom from listening to Khmer radio and watching Khmer TVs as a footnote to the story about Khmer Krom asylum-seekers. The Khmer radio and TV bans by the Vietnamese authority should be a big news in Cambodia and deserved to be printed in the front page of the Phnom Penh Post. But to do so would generate controversy and swift and unsavoury responses from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and its Vietnamese master. Hence to obscurely print it as a footnote of another report would be a safe option.
It is understandable that the Phnom Penh Post has to walk a political fine line considering that press freedom in Cambodia has its limits, especially media reports critical of the ruling CPP and Cambodia’s relations vis-à-vis Vietnam.
In relations to Cambodia’s current border conflicts vis-à-vis Thailand, the Phnom Penh Post has given unfettered access to the Thai views, while the Thai media, in particular the Bangkok Post and the Nation, have virtually closed their doors to Cambodian views. Their reports regarding the Khmer-Thai conflicts are mostly subjective, lop-sided and biased. On the contrary, the Phnom Penh Post is more objective, but seen as giving too much the Thai version of events at the expense of the Cambodian views in some cases.
This is because the Bangkok Post and the Nation are completely staffed and run by Thais who have Thai interests at heart. On the other hand, the Phnom Penh Post and other Cambodia’s English-language media are mostly staffed and run by foreigners who have no Cambodian interests at heart. One would hope that there will be a time when the Phnom Penh Post will take Cambodian interests at heart when it is completely staffed and run by Cambodians, but that would be a long way off.
The Phnom Penh Post is the world’s gateway to Cambodian news. The world’s media pick up Cambodian news mostly from the many English-language media in Cambodia. Any political correctness or political incorrectness will be favourably or unfavourably picked up by those world’s media. As such, one would hope that Cambodia can present its side of the story to the outside world favourably through the Phnom Penh Post or The Cambodia Daily.
I hope the Phnom Penh Post would not take this as a swipe, but as a friendly advice from one of its loyal readers.
20th February 2010
“I hope the Phnom Penh Post would not take this as a swipe, but as a friendly advice from one of its loyal readers.”
The Phnom Penh Post is virtually Cambodia’s window to the rest of the outside world. No doubt that it has done an excellent job in the field of objective reporting and information dissemination from Cambodia to the English-speaking world. However, in regard to Cambodia-Vietnam and Cambodia-Thai relations and conflicts, the Phnom Penh Post’s political correctness and its quest for objective reporting has led it to walk a political tightrope and fine line to the point of favouring Cambodia’s neighbours at the expense of Cambodia’s national interests and that of the Cambodian people.
The recent Phnom Penh Post’s political correctness has led it to cause a controversy when one of its editors defined the word “Yuon” as “a racist epithet for the Vietnamese”.
Another example of its fine line policy led it to print a news story about the Vietnamese bans of Khmer Krom from listening to Khmer radio and watching Khmer TVs as a footnote to the story about Khmer Krom asylum-seekers. The Khmer radio and TV bans by the Vietnamese authority should be a big news in Cambodia and deserved to be printed in the front page of the Phnom Penh Post. But to do so would generate controversy and swift and unsavoury responses from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and its Vietnamese master. Hence to obscurely print it as a footnote of another report would be a safe option.
It is understandable that the Phnom Penh Post has to walk a political fine line considering that press freedom in Cambodia has its limits, especially media reports critical of the ruling CPP and Cambodia’s relations vis-à-vis Vietnam.
In relations to Cambodia’s current border conflicts vis-à-vis Thailand, the Phnom Penh Post has given unfettered access to the Thai views, while the Thai media, in particular the Bangkok Post and the Nation, have virtually closed their doors to Cambodian views. Their reports regarding the Khmer-Thai conflicts are mostly subjective, lop-sided and biased. On the contrary, the Phnom Penh Post is more objective, but seen as giving too much the Thai version of events at the expense of the Cambodian views in some cases.
This is because the Bangkok Post and the Nation are completely staffed and run by Thais who have Thai interests at heart. On the other hand, the Phnom Penh Post and other Cambodia’s English-language media are mostly staffed and run by foreigners who have no Cambodian interests at heart. One would hope that there will be a time when the Phnom Penh Post will take Cambodian interests at heart when it is completely staffed and run by Cambodians, but that would be a long way off.
The Phnom Penh Post is the world’s gateway to Cambodian news. The world’s media pick up Cambodian news mostly from the many English-language media in Cambodia. Any political correctness or political incorrectness will be favourably or unfavourably picked up by those world’s media. As such, one would hope that Cambodia can present its side of the story to the outside world favourably through the Phnom Penh Post or The Cambodia Daily.
I hope the Phnom Penh Post would not take this as a swipe, but as a friendly advice from one of its loyal readers.
5 comments:
I think everyone has opinions, so it is impossible for anyone to be truly not biased. However, it is a shame that Khmerization appears to think that all Thais working for the Nation and Bangkok Post are driven simply by nationalist motives. These sorts of essentializing statements seem uncalled for, as I am sure the views of the Thais working at these newspapers are more varied than you suggest. If you were to have written that the editorial policies of these two papers are pro-Thai, that would have been a better way of putting it, I think. Crucially, we should remember that we have many identities, not just ethnic of national identities.
It is true that the Bangkok Post and the Nation's editorial policies are pro-Thai, however their reports are also very biased. Opinions by some writers and commentators are also very biased. Only Supalak Kanjanakundee and a few others are very reasonable in their reports.
Taking the case of Ta Moan Thom and Ta Krabey temples, these newspapers don't even say they are disputed temples, they simply said they are Thai temples. But according to the 1907 treaty and 1908 map, signed by the Thai king, these temple have been put inside Cambodia.
Opinions by Veera Prateepchaikul and a few others are very one-sided and biased. Most of their reports don't even quote Cambodian officials, only reports taken from international news outlets like Reuters, AP, AFP etc do.
I believe that individual reporters from Bangkok Post and the Nation are reasonable in regard to Khmer-Thai conflicts, but they have to follow the newspapers' and editors' guidelines who took a negative views toward Cambodia in the present conflicts.
I think this kind of controversies are healthy for the development of the Cambodian journalism, especially in a time where journalism in Cambodia is fighting for its freedom and development. The questions are: 1) How reliable is a Media of a country if the journalists are foreigners? 2) How reliable are national journalists reporting about their own country but living abroad? 3) How reliable is a Media with only national journalists?
Foreign journalists, even living in the country, have their advantages and limits: an advantage is that they can report with a little more sense of "freedom" than locals in a country like Cambodia. A limit could be that they will assume things easily that maybe locals would not miss. It is special real in an English-speaking media from a country like Cambodia. I really question foreigners living in Cambodia, but ignoring the language. As Cambodia develop more and more, they will find more difficult to live without the language as a foreign journalist works in China without knowing Chinese.
I think that efforts of foreign journalists in doing a reliable, objective and good journalism for a country like Cambodia, could centralize in giving formation to the new Cambodian generations of journalists. Giving their skill to Cambodians and letting them to take on their hand the development and debates of their own country and history.
The Phnom Penh Post has more Cambodian staff than foreigners.
It might be true, but Cambodian staff are junior staff like reporters and photographers. The decision-makers, the editors and editor-in-chief, are all foreigners, except the Khmer language twin brother of its English Phnom Penh Post.
I agree with the writer that Phnom Penh Post must look at issue close to the hearts of the Cambodians rather issues concerning its foreign readers. The press has a great influence on its readers. Readers will think or believe the way the media portray certain issues, conflicts or events.
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