Commentary | Sek Sophal, New Media Startups Initiatives are a Complement not a Replacement for Independent Media in Cambodia
It was the morning of Thursday, August 24, 2017 and I was wrapping up my report to beat an approaching deadline. I had by then been working at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) for almost a year since I graduated from university in Japan in 2016. Although the next day would be still Friday, my colleagues had already started thinking of spending their weekends with their families. While I was a bit annoyed with their endless conversations, which sometimes dragged my focus away, I was curious to know how they enjoy the weekend. Life, of course, is not purely for work.
But the noisy room suddenly became quiet when the phone rang. We were informed that radio FM 106.5 MHz, one of CCIM’s five radio stations, was shut down by the government. A few minutes later, all staff gathered in a meeting room to listen to CCIM’s Management Committee briefing of the situation. I felt like I were in the so-called Situation Room in the White House in Washington, D.C. While we were figuring out the root cause of the unanticipated shock, another CCIM radio station, FM 106.7 MHz, was shut down just hours after the first. Three days later, our three remaining FM radio stations in Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, and Siem Reap provinces were also shut down by the government.
All told, at least 32 radio stations broadcasting independent media content, including Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and Voice of Democracy (VOD), were closed down by the Ministry of Information of Cambodia during a week of coordinated crackdowns on independent media. The Ministry of Information accused those radio stations of violating their contracts and the laws of the country. The ministry, however, denied offering any explicit reasons or explanation.
While I remain optimistic, I also realize that bringing back those radio stations is a road too far. In addition to finding ways to bring back those independent media, I started thinking how life will be without free and independent journalism. What kind of democracy are people talking about without freedom of expression and full access to independent media? What can civil society organizations, independent journalists, and media institutions do next? As time goes by, none of these questions have clear answers. But Cambodia is about to lose more independent media.
“What kind of democracy are people talking about without freedom of expression and full access to independent media? ”
Since the media crackdown in mid-2017, the Cambodian government has relied mainly on legal warfare to continue its heavy-handed suppression of freedom of expression and independent media. The situation has turned even more critical in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the government has used the dissemination of disinformation as a key political tool to frame, weaken, delegitimize, and finally jail those criticizing it. In the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, the Cambodian government arrested at least 30 people expressing their opinions about the pandemic. Twelve of the 30 people arrested are former members of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the main opposition party that was dissolved by the Supreme Court in November 2017.
To make matters worse, during the lockdown in Phnom Penh in early May 2021, the Ministry of Information released a letter warning independent journalists against covering the news in the so-called red zones, where COVID-19 was hitting hard. According to the letter, only state-run media and reporters invited by the government were allowed to cover the news from the red zones. Clearly, this is a discrimination against independent media and violation of right to access to independent media.
Amidst this climate of fear and intimidation, the World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders has not surprisingly marked an alarming decline in media freedom in Cambodia. In 2017, Cambodia’s media freedom ranked 137 out of 180 countries. In 2021, Cambodia ranked 144. The downward spiral of media freedom, however, has been accelerated not only by the return of Cambodia to authoritarianism, but also the rise of government-sponsored media, the growing social media-based clickbait media, and the shrinking circulations and subscriptions of independent media.
If ongoing political suppression by the government were not enough, media institutions have scrambled to sustain their daily editorial process and independent broadcasting in the face of financial struggles. Southeast Asia Globe, one of a few remaining independent media institutions publishing high quality media content, for instance, has been forced to run a fundraising campaign for its operation sustainability due to a cash flow crisis.
As the future of media freedom in Cambodia appears murky, one practical initiative for protecting independent media and communication has been investing in new digital media startups. New media startups have engaged with more diverse stakeholders, particularly youths and women, by offering platforms to write and publish a wide range of issues that were once overlooked. Covering several topics from local to international news, The Cambodianness, for example, is popular among scholars, junior researchers, and university students as a venue to publish opinion pieces and commentaries. Similarly, The Wapatoa and The Focus cover arts and culture, health, education, tourism, gender, and the environment. All of these are important issues, but were largely underreported before.
Still, new media startups are a complement to, not a replacement for, independent media in Cambodia. While new media startup initiatives play a vital role in media development, investing in new media startups is less meaningful if it is purely business-oriented and takes the shrinking civic space and media freedom for granted. Media development is not about creating a new media institution only to lose an existing one. Institutional credibility needs an extended period of time and a huge investment in sources to build and maintain.
One further cause for concern about some new media startups is how they appear to blur the line between independent media and profit-driven media. During the launch ceremony of the Media Alternative Project in 2019, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Cambodia presented its research report Cambodia: Redefining civic space and the media ecosystem. The media, according to the report, is defined as “anything that uses contents to attract attention of audience, whether that’s used to inform, entertain, inspire, or meet a need.” In digital media, as the report claims, “attention is the currency,” while “utility is influence.” Without stressing generating high quality media content, such as in-depth articles, analysis, feature articles, and investigative reports, the notion that “attention is currency” appears to be implicitly suggestive of clickbait media rather than professional media. If not properly clarified, such a claim might generate “a necessary condition for Fake News to flourish.”
In addition, the report even presented an odd finding that shocked the audience. According to the report, “Media’s civic space hasn’t shrunk — it’s been fragmented. It isn’t a vast public square — it’s small groups led by trusted voices. And Cambodia has no shortage of these.” Since the crackdown on independent media in mid-2017, the Cambodian government has never stopped going after those expressing critical views against it in the media. With this regard, the research finding appears to contradict the reality of the media landscape in Cambodia.
In such a critical time of steep decline in media freedom, compounded by the rapid rise of false narratives and information overload, supporting professional journalism in Cambodia is far more important than ever for the international community, particularly the U.S. However, there is not much the U.S. can do if it fails to reinvigorate its international broadcasting strategy. Towards this end, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) could bring back RFA in Khmer to Cambodia, and continue to build capacity for Cambodian independent journalists. As Mark G. Pomar, former executive director of the Board for International Broadcasting (now USAGM), argued: “To attract an audience that can have a lasting political impact, especially in close or semi-close societies, international broadcaster will need to provide context and depth to their news-related stories.” The USAGM cannot do it without bringing RFA in Khmer back to Cambodia, engaging with independent journalists and supporting the remaining independent media in Cambodia.
Winston Churchill once said, “A free press is the unsleeping guardian of all other rights that free men prize; it is the most dangerous foe of tyranny.” For those standing with democratic values – liberty, equality, and justice – saving the independent media institutions in Cambodia is a critical urgency. It is now or never.
Sek Sophal is a researcher at the Democracy Promotion Centre, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu, Japan. He is also a writing contributor to The Bangkok Post and Southeast Asia Globe.
To cite this Commentary, please use the entry suggested below:
Sek Sophal, “New Media Startups Initiatives are a Complement not a Replacement for Independent Media in Cambodia,” criticalasianstudies.org Commentary Board, July 1, 2021; https://doi.org/10.52698/ZDAK9215.