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James Loving - National Radio Text Service
Sports and our Phnom Penh columns tied for 1st with each taking 3 of the Top 10 spots. Politics isn't our game but it jumped up this month through a thread of articles relate to the topic. The bottom line is Cambodian politics and justice is as clear as MUD
Wednesday June 15, 2011 A MIXED BAG OF TOPICS but FIFA EMERGES Sports tied with our Phnom Penh column for the most read as each took three positions in our NR Top 10 ratings. It was CAMBODIA'S MYSTERIOUS RISE IN THE FIFA Rankings that locked down the number one position. That was the straw that stirred the drink and threaded the three sports columns together as being the most interesting as they all contained a Sepp Blatter theme. It appears that many have been doing their research on the king of football as the oldest column to make the list was from our Sports Notes June 2010 Extra column that noted Blatter intended to run for the FIFA presidential office again. That story ranked # 6 in our NR Top 10 ratings. That was followed up with FIFA'S PRESIDENTIAL RACE IS HEATING UP which notched the 10th spot. Our Phnom Penh columns gained some strength with the Top 5 stories in our February edition that moved from the 4th position to take 2nd place this month. The interest in that column is largely driven by the child sex trafficking and prostitution documentary RED LIGHT which took the top spot at that time. Khmer Rouge victim now lawyer and activist Theary Seng was the protagonist in the documentary Facing Genocide that takes a victims point of view of the Khmer Rouge destruction and abuse of the Cambodian nation and people. This story is gaining momentum having moved up five spots from the 9th to the 4th position. The other Top 10 Phnom Penh column was our take on what goes on in the realm that dictates an unjust discriminating biased system which ranked # 7. We experienced it first hand while covering the ASEAN Tourism Forum. What we've learned is given that we were the first to write about Angkor Wat, the Royal Palace and other notable places of interest in Cambodia our thanks was to be assaulted by a Ministry of Tourism employee. During that Tourism Forum period away from the event local journalists had their cameras and tape recorders taken from them while they were covering government related stories. They were guilty of asking questions and taking photos that government officials weren't comfortable with such as photos of the strong armed tactics being employed in the redevelopment and displacement of residents in the Boeung Kak Lake area. What we have learned and experienced since we first visited Phnom Penh in 1998 is there is a focus on greed and an unfair justice system that rewards the rich and exploits the poor. An example is the ppreviously noted of how the police STRONG ARMED a staff photographer of the Phnom Penh Post trying to tell the story of a group of village people who were being evicted from their homes and were beaten police and security personnel. In Cambodia many put their hands on someone (assault) as a show of strength. In America that show of strength would put them behind bars. His actions demonstrated how ignorant and disrespectful the Tourism Ministry is. They appreciate nothing and expect everything. We were the first to write about the subjects given that at the time we wrote those stories there was nothing on the Internet regarding the topics and the Ministry of Tourism had no information at that time on either subject… we had to start from scratch. The other DISCRIMINATION Cambodian Style story is regarding the former Cambodian Football Federation President Ravy Khek not being tried for beating and threatening his former wife with a handgun. In the USA it is considered an assault with a deadly weapon which is a mandatory offense with a minimum one year jail sentence. After years in the court system the Cambodian case has yet to be finalized. Conversely the April 3-May 1st 2011 edition of the Cambodia Daily (P-13) tells the story of a 15-year-old girl and two of her female friends ages 21 and 25 that stole cashew fruit. They were imprisoned immediately for a month in a jail with 1,100 prisoners at the time the report was published. The detention center was built to hold only 500. The court system refused to release them despite the appeals of human rights groups for them to do so. The Daily failed to follow up on the story thus the girls situation is unknown. Their parents asked the court to release the girls on bail but were refused. In today's Cambodia Daily it noted on Page 25 that Cambodia ranks LAST of 66 nations in the Global Rule of Law Index compiled by the World Justice Project. The government circled their wagons and denied the report was factual. The government notes that people think that when Cambodian people are rich that they are corrupt. This comes on the heels of a UN Human Rights envoy stating that Cambodia's judiciary needs major reforms and the one sided CPP-dominated legislature lacks transparency and pluralism. The good news is that American Idol dominated our charts over the past few months and had the fastest moving story in this edition American Idol's Scott McCREERY and Lauren ALAINA are ON THEIR WAY rocketed up the charts to the third spot in less than two weeks. Our survey was taken June 12 and the story was released May 30th. Our American Idols Top 6 review took the 8th spot. BIZ WHO IS shocked the charts with an old feature on the American Grammy Awards boss Neil Portnow with his background being the focus. And last but now least our Part 2 of our 2010 Year in Review remains on the charts in taking the 5th position down from the 3rd spot last month. In our sections most visited the most notable is International football/soccer remains in the top spot. Sports Notes moved up to 2nd from 8th last month. Phnom Penh took 3rd and American Idol moved up two spots from 7th to 5th. The mystery entry is the Entertainment 2007 section. This section makes the charts from time to time and when we review it we can't find what is significant about the section. You take a look and you be the judge. After an NGO contacted us regarding a story that we did in September 2004 on then 16-year-old Cambodian female track star Sou Tit Linda we racked our brains and files in search of it. We couldn't locate the report. Thus the search was on and Google led us down to the path of righteousness to the story. Thus it qualifies as one of our Archive stories of the month. The other Archive feature is our first coverage in Asia that being the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok. Against All Odds tells the story of how close Thailand came to losing the games but after seven years of doing nothing rallied and put the venues and infrastructure together in one year. SECTIONS MOST VISITED
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