In regards to the negative benefit, Pen Samithik raised the case of Seng Kunakar, the WFP employee who was sentenced to jail for printing information that are critical to the Cambodian government leaders from a website [KI-Media]. However, he also said that others are using this new technological medium to seek friends or girlfriends and boyfriends.
The Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ) indicated that, Cambodia is currently moving to a new media type, such as online news and websites from numerous organizations, and this media type received support from the public, be they government VIPs or the ordinary public.
This new media type and its influence on politics was the subject of a roundtable raised by the CCJ at a meeting organized at the Sunway Hotel on 31 December 2010. The roundtable was attended by a group of journalists from various news media organizations.
The new media type was focused on information distributed over the Internet, such as private website and, in particular, on Facebook and other popular websites in Cambodia.
Pen Samithik, CCJ president, said that the goal of the roundtable is to provide opportunity to reporters to clearly understand this new type of media and its influence on politics, as well as its various technological impacts.
He added that this new technology for Cambodia receives the attention from a number of politicians in Cambodia, especially the influence it exerts through websites and online news. The politicians who are using this new media type include Hun Xen and Khieu Kanharith, the minister of Information.
Nevertheless, Pen Samithik also stressed that, while this new technology is making inroads in Cambodia, it could also bring positive and negative benefits to the users of this medium.
In regards to the negative benefit, Pen Samithik raised the case of Seng Kunakar, the WFP employee who was sentenced to jail for printing information that are critical to the Cambodian government leaders from a website [KI-Media]. However, he also said that others are using this new technological medium to seek friends or girlfriends and boyfriends.
Kem Sokha, HRP President who is also a supporter of this new technological medium, said that in Cambodia, users are attracted by its influence, but the number of users is still very small in comparison to overseas. However, he recognized that this new technology could wield wide influence in the world.
Kem Sokha added that the development of this technology should not be hampered by government's website shutdown threats or arrest of the readers of these websites.
Kem Sokha added: "The influence is small, but I believe that in the future, it will be large. What that is being done, the majority of it is done overseas. Expatriate Cambodians, as well as foreigners, are interested in Cambodia, this has strong influence."
Chhay Sophal, a member of the CCJ executive committee, showed the influence of this new medium to reporters by using Wikileaks as an example. This site reveals secret documents on the relationship between the US and other countries, including with Cambodia. He said that with the progress of this new medium, there are also dangers for the journalist profession as well.
Pen Bona, a reporter for Radio France Internationale (RFI), indicated that the progress of this new technology provides ease to the public in general, and in particular to professional reporters as well.
He said that for the printed media, radio and TV which involved professional reporters, they should pay more attention and increase their capacity when this new type of media is currently growing on the Internet.
Pen Samithik also provided some statistics on Internet usage in Cambodia. Up until June 2010, there are more than 110,000 Internet users in Cambodia, and there are about 2,000 websites related to Cambodia, more than 1,000 of which are registered in Cambodia (with the suffix kh). Currently, there are 320 Internet Cafes in Cambodia, 120 of which are located in Phnom Penh.
Regarding politics, this new medium can send information freely to communist countries or to dictatorships where information, freedom of expression and human rights are repressed, and where the governments of these countries are preventing free news media to operate. This new technological medium also allows anonymous criticisms of government leaders.
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