A senior official at the Ministry of Information said that adherence to professional ethics in the practice of journalism is necessary and shows the pride, dignity and honour of all those who do so.

Ministry spokesman Meas Sophorn spoke at a conference on strengthening cooperation to protect press freedoms in Southeast Asia on December 12. He added that currently the media sector in Cambodia is growing steadily and the means and scope of coverage are more diverse and cover everywhere in the country, the region and the world.

According to Sophorn, in Cambodia today, virtually all Cambodians use mobile phones, and almost the entirety of the estimated population of more than 16 million uses the internet.

“This shows the current ways of accessing information for Cambodians in all aspects from all regions and in the world,” he said.

In addition, Cambodia currently has all kinds of media, both modern and traditional. He said that as of August of this year there were at least 2,117 media outlets practising journalism in the Kingdom, Sophorn added.

He said the diverse media landscape was actively fulfilling their role in the Kingdom freely and that their freedoms are guaranteed by the law, especially the press law.

Sophorn also claimed that since Cambodia completely ended its civil war, it has never had a journalist killed while on a mission reporting.

“This clearly demonstrates that peace is a factor that is fundamental to the promotion and improvement of respect for freedoms, including the right to freedom of the press and the right to life,” he said.

He said the government has always taken care of and put in place the necessary mechanisms to support the freedom of the press and to support good cooperation between journalists and public institutions in order to strengthen the relationship between public officials from the national level to the sub-national level in working together to provide information to the media.

Nop Vy, executive director of the Coalition of Cambodian Journalists (CamboJA), said the conference was a good and necessary initiative after Covid-19, which saw the shrinking of press freedoms in many other countries in the world and in ASEAN.

“In the digital age, the development of technology and the development of the intellectual resources of the people, especially the youth, are becoming a value in promoting social responsibility, accountability and transparency. However, this growth also negatively affects the work of professional journalists, traditional media and increases the dissemination of false or demagogic news,” he said.

Vy said that he hoped that the mechanisms of cooperation in the region could help strengthen the mechanisms and institutions working in each country by mobilising resources, strengthening capacity, building solidarity and working together to make a stronger voice for launching supportive activities for journalists.

Vy also called for more attention to be paid to activities to encourage women’s participation in the media as they only make up about 20 per cent of journalists in the Kingdom.

Sophorn said the number of female journalists in Cambodia had increased from year to year, and that the ministry provides about 5,000 cards to both national and international journalists working in Cambodia each year.