In Cambodia and elsewhere, the choice can be between negative reporting and PR. Photo: Reuters / Samrang Pring

by David Hutt
June 30, 2020

I’d estimate that at least 90% of all journalistic content about Cambodia, both in English and Khmer, is published in either government-friendly or government-owned publications

After reporting from Cambodia for five years, I consider it some success that I managed to annoy a good many people, certainly those within both the ruling party and the main opposition party – after coming close to being kicked out of the country by the former, I am told, and after being blacklisted for comments by the acting leader of the latter.

Take Southeast Asia. In Vietnam and Laos, the only legally permissible newspapers are those owned by the state and, therefore, the ruling communist parties. In Cambodia, Prime Minister HE’s daughter, Hun Mana, owns a good chunk of the country’s television and radio stations, while most of the others are controlled by tycoons with close connections to the ruling party. Similar problems exist from Singapore to the Philippines and Indonesia.

In a survey last year by the International Federation of Journalists and Southeast Asia Journalist Unions, titled “Holding the Line: South East Asia Media Freedom Report 2019,” by the 37% of the respondents who said “the media situation in their country had not improved or remained unchanged in the past year,” the main reason given was media ownership.

I might be a “go-to writer and encyclopedia on all-thing-bad about Cambodia,” but, believe me, the vast majority of Cambodians aren’t reading my writing; they’re reading what the government wants them to read, which is almost always positive.

full https://asiatimes.com/2020/06/on-negative-journalism/

John Bingham wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 10:24 am I know him, he only really started his major criticisms of the government after he left Cambodia. Now every article he writes is damning the country.

Probably because he valued his life and didn't want to end up on a squalid jail cell or shot dead in a StarMart.