Police Destroy Thousands of Seized Videos

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer

Original report from Phnom Penh

05 January 2010

(CAAI News Media)

Authorities destroyed some 300,000 illegal movies, including pornographic videos, in a ceremony in Phnom Penh Tuesday, using a giant roller compactor to crush the illegal discs.

“We have pushed to eliminate the illegal copyrights of CDs and pornographic videos and warn the offenders that they face prison charges,” Sao Bunthoeun, deputy director of the national police’s internal security department, said in a ceremony Tuesday morning.

“The illegal VCDs affects intellectual property, and the pornographic VCDs affect Cambodian culture and the morals of the people,” he said. “So the producers of illegal and pornographic VCDs must stop immediately. If they destroy or damage our national culture, we will face damage to the nation.”

From June to December 2009, police seized around 270,000 movies and more than 2,000 pornographic videos from market stalls and distributors in Phnom Penh and Kandal province, he said.

Sao Bunthoeun said pornographic videos were in part responsible for rapes in Cambodia, including incest rapes between father and daughter and brother and sister. “So it is very dangerous.”

Om Sam Ath, an investigator for the rights group Licadho, said reported rape cases reached 274 in 2009, up from 214 in 2008, and that a majority of the cases were related to the viewing of pornographic videos.

“The increase of the rape cases is caused by the pornographic culture, like pornographic videos imported from abroad,” he said.