NEC deputy secretary-general Mok Dara chairs a meeting on the commune council elections on Tuesday. NEC
Private radio and television station owners are urged to sell airtime to political parties to disseminate their party policies as part of their campaign in May for the upcoming Commune Council Election 2022.
“The airtime [package] must be based on the principle of equality, value and precedence,” National Election Committee (NEC) deputy secretary-general Mok Dara said on April 12.
Television and radio station owners must divide the hours by the number of participating political parties in the election.
Assuming not many political parties take up the offer, a single political party can buy up three times of the duration allocated to each party.
However, he warned, the owners must not sell airtime exclusively to only one party.
In addition, owners are not responsible for the content of the political party’s policies.
“Political parties are responsible for their own content,” he said.
If NEC finds that the content violated election rules and procedures, it will ask the political parties to amend.
Failure to amend can lead to NEC stopping the broadcast and legal action against the radio and television station.
Meanwhile, Sam Sokuntheamy, the executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC) said apart from the ruling party, most of the political parties would not be able to afford to buy airtime.
These parties have already disseminated their policies to members, supporters and activists via the media.
He told the Post that the airtime sold is either “not good” or that people might not be interested in the party that is promoting the policy.
“It relates to the financial ability of political parties to buy time for broadcasting their policy. In general, the ruling party is more able to buy airtime to broadcast their policies and educate voters,” he said.
Kheuy Sinoeun, vice-president of the Cambodian Nation Love Party (CNLP), bluntly said his party cannot afford to buy airtime.
“For the policies broadcasting in the past, the NEC has divided the program of each party with equal time. But CNLP has no plans to do that.
“We will rely entirely on the NEC because we cannot afford it. However, we will use our own media to broadcast,” he said.
