Transparency International Cambodia (TIC) executive director Pech Pisey urged the media to do more reporting on the issues of transparency, accountability for the national budget, corruption, respect for human rights and social justice after noticing a lack of coverage on these topics.
Pisey made the remarks during an awards ceremony for a journalism competition on “Transparency, accountability of the national budget and responsible business practices” held at the Polu Wei Hotel on October 19.
He said that the role of journalists is a very important in raising awareness of these issues and if journalists do not write in-depth stories on these issues then people will not know much about what is going on.
“The competition for people’s attention in this age of social media has intensified and if we do not promote the dissemination of information on important national issues, then frivolous news and entertainment will be the only information consumed about the daily lives of the people,” he said.
He emphasized that this does not mean having fun is wrong, but there is a lot of information that affects common interests and the public interest that is not currently being reported.
However, he said the rate of absorption of information by people is limited, which is why these issues require skilled journalists to do in-depth analysis and find evidence to inform people about the importance topics like corruption and respect for human rights.
“The participation of journalists is very important in the process of providing information to the people, as well as promoting the right to information, the right to freedom of expression and other things that contribute to making Cambodia a responsible country that takes common interests seriously and is a full democracy,” he said.
The winners of the TIC competition were all journalists from media working in Cambodia: Eng Kemhong of Radio France International, Vith Vicheka of Fresh News Plus, Ses Vansak of CamboJA, May Virak of AMS Sports, Touk Piseth of VOD, Tuy Engly of CamboJA and freelance journalist Bhikkhu Pok Ponleu.
Touk Piseth, a journalist at VOD, said in a discussion at the event that he had written articles about people’s grievances over the construction of National Road 2, which were related to corruption.
“I investigated it through face-to-face interviews with people on National Road 2, because people are less likely to talk about the challenges around the issues without meeting someone first,” he said.
Kimhong, a journalist at Radio France International, said she had written an article about parking fees at state-run markets.
She stated that she wrote the story because she noticed that the sign at the gates to the market stated that parking costs 300 riel, but she was charged 1,000 riel or more every time she entered the market, even briefly.
“For the article I wrote, I went to Phsar Thmei, Phsar Orussey and Phsar Boeung Keng Kang, which all had this same problem and the reasons given by the market managers were all the same and they recognized that this problem with guards overcharging parking fees existed but they did little about it,” she said.
Pa Chanroeun, president of the Institute of Democracy in Cambodia, said that writing about the financial budget is a complicated topic but journalists can try to simplify things so that people can easily understand it.
He said that, unfortunately, most people do not like to read these days but they do like to watch videos, so journalists should consider producing videos in addition to their articles to spread the word about underreported issues.
