The Ministry Information and the National Committee for Counter Trafficking on Tuesday hold a seminar about the role of the media in the fight against human trafficking. voun dara
The Ministry of Information and the National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT) joined hands to strengthen the capacity of journalists, TV presenters and commentators to upgrade their skills in helping to address human trafficking.
Calling the media a crucial player in the fight against human trafficking, the two institutions said members of the media had to gain additional skills and be more capable in publicising the people’s vulnerability to such trafficking.
In this regard, a one-day seminar called Strengthening of Capacities and Code of Ethics and Human Trafficking Prevention for some 150 journalists, TV presenters and commentators was co-organised on Tuesday by the ministry, the NCCT and the International University (IU).
The seminar was aimed at assisting journalists and commentators to acquire additional skills in reporting and disseminating news on human trafficking in the Kingdom.
The ministry’s secretary of state Chum Kosal told The Post on the sidelines of the seminar that its main purpose was to increase the journalists’ skills and share knowledge of using the right words when reading news and speaking about the subject.
“They [journalists and commentators] are public personalities. The topic of preventing and suppressing human trafficking enables them to spread the word to millions of people who can then learn more about the human trafficking issue – the global one,” he said.
Besides this first training seminar for journalists in Cambodia, Kosal said the ministry would run such courses for a second and third time for the journalists and commentators in the provinces as well.
The human trafficking issue, he said, is a major global issue like drug trafficking, which must also be paid due attention in terms of educating the public by publicising its dangers.
Keo Sovanara, the head of the working group for prevention and suppression at the general secretariat of the NCCT, said that the media had a crucial role to play in preventing and combating human trafficking, and its participation through cooperation with the authorities is highly important.
“So far we notice that people are still victimised [by human trafficking], so we need to raise awareness of the issue through the media,” he said.
Adhoc spokesman Soeung Sen Karuna said the ministry is only now pushing for reporting over the issue of human trafficking when the issue has been happening for many years.
“Pushing for reporting on the issue is good. And the issue has not been eliminated yet as law enforcement remained limited,” he said.
