Mass media in Cambodia

Media in Cambodia is largely unregulated and includes radio, television and print media outlets. Private sector companies have moved into the media sector, which represents a change from years of state run broadcasting and publishing. Since emerging from the communist governments of the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnam backed People's Republic of Kampuchea regime, the Cambodian media sector has become one of Southeast Asia's most free. However, the lack of professional journalism training and ethics along with the intimidation by both government and private interests limit the Cambodian media's influence.

In 1987, the state controlled print and electronic media and regulated their content. The most authoritative print medium in 1987 was the ruling KPRP's biweekly journal, Pracheachon (The People), which was inaugurated in October 1985 to express the party's stand on domestic and international affairs. Almost as important, however, was the weekly of the KUFNCD, Kampuchea. The principal publication of the armed forces was the weekly Kangtoap Padevoat (Revolutionary Army). As of 1987, Cambodia still had no daily newspaper. Though this situation changed swiftly after the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops and the UNTAC supervised general election in 1993. Radio and television were under the direction of the Kampuchean Radio and Television Commission, created in 1983. In 1986 there were about 200,000 radio receivers in the country. The Voice of the Kampuchean People (VOKP) radio programs were broadcast in Khmer, Vietnamese, French, English, Lao, and Thai. With Vietnamese assistance, television broadcasting was instituted on a trial basis in December 1983 and then regularly at the end of 1984.

There are more than 100 newspapers in Cambodia, however few maintain regular publication schedules and have paid staff. Many newspapers are run by political parties or individual politicians, so coverage is often slanted. Reporters will sometimes demand payments from their sources to keep unfavorable stories, whether true or not, out of the paper. However, reporters for the established vernacular dailies and journalists working for wire services and the foreign language press, generally keep to a standard of ethics.