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Cambodia: Voices from Cambodian blogosphere

Categories: East Asia, Cambodia, Freedom of Speech

Ministry of Information has ordered all radio and television stations to stop reading news [1] article of print newspapers. This move is considered as an attempt to maintain professional journalism in the country. News readers read some selected press articles and make personal comments for their radio and television broadcasting. Since most people find it difficult to buy and read newspapers, airing of news reading is popular in the country where large population is illiterate and living under poverty line.

And in response to the arrest of border critics [2] and a radio journalist [3], about 30 human rights groups have just formed an Alliance of Freedom of Expression [4] to launch a nation-wide campaign. The campaign aims to promote freedom of expression in the country. So far some 60,000 ribbons has been distributed in the city and some provinces. Apart from traditional media, access to online news and resources [5] is also popular among college students in Phnom Penh, the business and cultural center of the country. The worldwide network opens windows to young people to access to useful online materials, mostly for their life-long learning as well as participation in online discussion groups to share their opinions on particular topics. However, a knife is just a knife; some users enjoy only chatting, accessing to inappropriate Web sites such as pornography and violence.

In 15 years, struggling film industry comes to life again. The country organized its second national film festival [6] , featured 22 Cambodian movies, at Chaktomuk Theatre on November 28, 2005. Vampire and ghost stories make the most in the competition list. In this last decade, popularity of foreign movies have made life difficult for national filmmakers. Local people find Thai, Chinese, American, and even Korean movie a taste of entertainment when local film productions have to do more to compete with quality foreign film company. Horror stories are not only in the film, in countryside, sorcery also makes news headlines. Witchcraft or sorcery [7], Arb-Thmob in Khmer, is what people have ever heard of, but never actually seen this scary creature, half-ghost and half-human.

Living with her father in Phnom Penh, she was just 5 years old, and was evacuated from the city when the Khmer Rouge came to power. She does not understand why she had to leave from her home in the city to the countryside. An educated person like her father is a target of execution and killing of the regime to revolutionize the society. First They Killed My Father [8]: a daughter of Cambodia remembers by Loung Ung is beautiful and so clearly captures the voice of a child survived from the genocide.