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Phnom
Penh
(Ah!)
- TOP
(5) FIVE STORIES
D. J. Ken - National Radio Text Service
As our ratings revealed the world is interested in stories about oppression as some of our most read stories related to the poor being abused, children sold into prostitution as well as strong armed tactics towards the press.
Saturday, February 19, 2011 RED LIGHT TAKES THE TOP SPOT with CHILD PROSTITUTION In an amazing start to the 2011 year there was a massive shake-up and changes in our Phnom Penh Top Story ratings. In the spirit of what the Middle East is currently experiencing it seems that readers are searching for real stories and not fantasizing about what's going on in life and what life is about. As our ratings revealed the world is interested in stories abut oppression as our most read top stories related to the poor being abused, children sold into prostitution as well as strong armed tactics towards the press. Our top story is a film review in our Video Beat column. Given that is has a strong Phnom Penh based theme and where much of the movie was filmed we are including it in our Phnom Penh Top 5 stories. Another change is we're including a press release about media photographer's cameras and video cards being taken from them in a strong armed manner. What's amusing but sad about these stories are they occurred during the time period that the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) was courting the tourist industries buyers and sellers in a Tourism Forum held in the city. The tourism business guests were being whisked around town with police escorts and didn't have a clue as to what really goes on in Phnom Penh. The top story is titled (American) Idol Judges Groove. That was the opening of the column but the meat of the interest was our video review of Red Light a film about child prostitution and child slavery in Cambodia. Our findings were reinforced as Part 2 of that column fully devoted to the subject took the second spot. It also qualified as our fastest moving up the charts story. NO WONDER! IN THE KINGDOM OF WONDER THE SPIN ON the PHNOM PENH ASEAN Tourism Forum took the third position. It describes how the MOT put its best foot forward impressing their tourism forum guests with fine food, wine, women, and song and dance. That is a two part story with page 2 receiving a lot of attention as it points out the lax judicial system in bringing powerful people to justice to pay for their crimes while the poor are sentenced quickly and fined beyond their meager means. The strong armed police tactics are linked in that column to two incidences where the media was abused including four riot police with shields boxed in and restrained Cambodian national Sovan Philong, 25, preventing him from moving as they confiscated his camera equipment and tape recorders being taken from reporters who asked too many of the wrong questions to a politician at a press conference. The fifth most read story was Control Room a film presented by the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia that we reviewed at the Meta House. It was how the Middle East news agency Al Jazeera was stone walled by the US media representatives and one of their reporters was murdered. This is a relevant Phnom Penh story as the information was provided in Phnom Penh to be consumed by intelligent individuals who are concerned about human rights and observant of human behaviors. In summary for those tourism forum visitors what they saw isn't what is got by the majority of the populace living in the kingdom. Information of what goes on in the world in available for those who want to reach out and absorb it.
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