Written by DAP NEWS -- Thursday, 10 September 2009
Information Minister and Gover-nment spokesman Khieu Kanarith on Wednesday said that Government agencies still lack spokespeople to provide information to the media.
Information Minister and Gover-nment spokesman Khieu Kanarith on Wednesday said that Government agencies still lack spokespeople to provide information to the media.
“Actually, we have trained a lot of spokespeople but those people worked only a short time in their Government institutions before they were promoted and it made the Governmental agencies lack spokespeople again,” he said at the launch ceremony of Khmer version of the Phnom Penh Post newspaper.
Journalists working in Cambodia are often subject to an almost come-dic odyssey of unanswered phones when looking for comment from ministries or big business.
“The most important things for our journalists have to know are that they should have personal contact with and build relationships with all Governmental sources so that it will be easy to contact Governmental officials,” Khieu Kanarith said.
He also confessed that Cambodia lacks human resources and skilled people to be spokespeople. In recent months, “the Information Ministry trained about 50 spokespeople and photographers for the Government, including top Governmental officials,” he noted.
“Spokespeople are the officials who are close to the top Govern-mental officials or decision makers of their institutions that they have rights to decide on all issues involving their agencies,” he added.
Cambodian journalists often cite the Petroleum Authority of Cambodia as one of the most difficult Govern-mental agencies to get information from, though one foreign correspondent based in Phnom Penh said many sources seem unwilling to speak with foreigners.
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