All journalists are puppets!!!

Chhay Sophal

By Chhay Sophal
Cambodia

PHNOM PENH: As you all know, media has played a key role in all areas like:

– Politics

– Democracy and human rights, as well as free and fair elections

– Social justice, leaders’ transparency and accountability, and social equality and equity;

– Gender, women’s’ rights, children’s rights, and senior citizens’ rights, including the rights of transgender and even gays;

– Economy, trade and business;

– War and Peace;

– Coups, demonstrations, riots;

– Education and social ethics;

– Climate change and environment (earth, water, wind, forest, fire, electricity, and biodiversity, etc.);

– Freedom of beliefs and religions;

– Tourism, sports and entertainment of all kinds, food, arts, cultures, traditions and customs;

– Traffic (land, water, air and underground – land and water)

Crimes (corruption, stealing states’ property, murders, robberies, rapes, illegal gambling, drug trafficking, human trafficking, especially women and child trafficking, prostitution, money laundering, and other illegal smuggling, etc.)

Health issues (COVID-19, SARS, tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, cancer, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and STIs, maternal and child health, liver, lungs, stomach, etc.…);

– Science; and

– Other social issues as well as other human interests.

Journalists in action

The World leaders and governments, including many national and international non-governmental organizations, need to work more closely and better with the media. While the world and states have spent much to cope everything on earth, there is very little money for media. You all know that media is part of business and they work hard every day to survive their staffs and serve the public interest in another hand.

It is undeniable to say that the world and state leaders, policy makers, politicians and civil society officials as well as some businesspeople on earth have tried to exploit the media as their tools for their wills and interests, but they don’t want to spend money for the media.

Let’s imagine a bit about this: State and non-state institutions, embassies and civil society organizations in the world have their own annual budgets regularly, and more or less they also receive internal and external assistance to pay salaries to their civil servants and staff, pay for their building renting, buying all types and models of small and large vehicles, including pay for bills of water, electricity, garbage, taxes and other public service fees, including staff pension. What about media? Where do the media get their money from? They make a living by advertising revenue, and if the ad is not the pubic satisfying or a little sensitive, the weight of the denunciation is not light.

Moreover, civil society officials who receive large sums of money from donors for their work have kept quiet, but if any media receive some money from either governments or business as project, they immediately accuse the media of nondependent (Sic).

Now glance at the Cambodia media where there are 5 types of journalists:

– 1st State journalists who are civil servants: National Television of Kampuchea/Cambodia (TVK), National Radio of Cambodia (RNK) and Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP), as well as officials from the 25 municipal-provincial information departments;

– 2nd journalists working for private companies (Khmer and foreign owners);

– 3rd journalists working for private and foreign companies: AFP (France), AP (US), Kydo (Japan), Reuters (UK), Xinhua (China’s government), VOA (US government), .… ..

– 4th journalists of civil society organizations that receive funds from foreign donors;

– 5th Freelance journalists who sell articles, photos and videos footage to other news organizations as they wish.

Here, I exclude:

– Facebook users among whom is a lone but act all work – the boss, the editor-in-chief, the reporter, the photographer, the videographer, and the marketing agent, and the social solution broker;

– Persons who hold microphone broadcast LIVE and pre-record on Facebook with incomplete information; and

– Citizen journalists who report emotionally.

Therefore, all journalists must make solidarity and unity as a force to help society, even if they have different political tendencies and ideologies, and receive salaries in riels and dollars from different owners. Do not discriminate against each other and do not promote arrogance and pride that you are an independent journalist while saying that others are the puppets of this and that group.

In fact, all journalists are the puppets — social puppets and mass public’s puppets. Those puppets work the same job — collecting information to write news and disseminating to the public — despite some of political contents in the article of print, radio, and TV, including websites and other convergent media) are different.

We, the journalists, are the world as we are the puppets of society and the mass public. заявка на кредитную карту решение онлайн