Readers’ opinion: Withdrawal of license from VOD newspaper received strong support

Readers’ opinion: Withdrawal of license from VOD newspaper received strong support

(Phnom Penh): The Ministry of Information decided on Monday, February 13, to revoke the license of VOD after the newspaper refused to apologize for its professional misconduct. The revocation of the license from VOD has received strong support from the public from all walks of life across the country, as the media has always made serious mistakes and refused to correct them, and especially in the latter case disagreed to apologize at the request of Mr. HUN Manet and Samdech Prime Minister HUN SEN, who are victims of false news published by VOD.

Now let’s look at the story again:

1. VOD spread false information that Dr. Hun Manet was the one who signed the aid document to Turkey on behalf of Prime Minister Hun Sen. The news came as Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Hun Manet, along with several other leaders, paid an official visit to Beijing, China. After the false information was published, Mr. Hun Manet came out and denied it, “demanding that VOD show the documents and ask for a correction and apologize for its mistake.” Mr. Hun Manet made it clear on Facebook that he had no right to sign any official government documents. However, VOD has not commented on the correction.
2. Later, Prime Minister Hun Sen also reacted by even showing internal correspondence regarding the budget to be given to Turkey without any connection with Mr. Hun Manet at all. The Prime Minister also gave 72 hours to VOD to apologize. But the newspaper still refused to correct or apologize at all.
3. In the next step, the Ministry of Information also summoned VOD representatives to explain the serious case and the Ministry insisted on correcting and apologizing to the Prime Minister and Mr. Hun Manet for their mistakes to end the problem. But in the end, in a letter to the Prime Minister, “VOD did not apologize.”

Of course, VOD is not unaware that the impact of its misinformation is huge for the government, but it intends to leave the information untouched. “What is the intention of VOD to do this?” Time is more than enough to correct and apologize if VOD really intends and wants to correct it.

Note that this is the age of modern technology, and VOD is another online newspaper that publishes information quickly, and corrections can be done very quickly. Even print newspapers can correct information the next day. What about VOD, which is an online newspaper, can only be done in a few minutes? At this point, anyone can understand the intentions of VOD.

If we talk about the impact of VOD’s misinformation, it is huge because it “is a trick to nurture the issue and use procrastination to allow the metal to corrode.” There is no doubt about this fake news, which has a malicious purpose and intent to tarnish the reputation of Mr. Hun Manet, a potential successor candidate of the Cambodian People’s Party. Extremist opposition groups, funded and supported by foreign bosses, have launched a series of attacks on Hun Manet because they see the growing popularity of the ruling party’s future prime ministerial candidate.

The extremist opposition, which has no new, young candidates full of potential to compete with Hun Manet, is constantly trying to drown the ruling party’s popular candidate. Spreading false information is one of the main means they use. In fact, the false information on the signing of the document on humanitarian aid to Turkey on behalf of the Prime Minister is a scenario to discredit Hun Manet.

In addition, this false information has caused serious damage to the entire Royal Government because it really misleads the general public that the government led by Samdech Techo Hun Sen works disorderly and violates the hierarchy in force. As for budget expenditures, it is not transparent because everyone can sign.

This is the intention to tarnish the image and credibility of the government as the election approaches.

Faced with such a situation, it is true that the Cambodian government also has the right to protect itself from this baseless attack through actions in accordance with the principles of democracy and the rule of law to eliminate anarchy in society.

This is the logical reason why the revocation of the license from VOD is very popular because in Cambodia there are many media outlets that have been providing true information about Cambodia to the people both inside and outside the country.

So far, people get a lot of information through the media, which has been growing like a mushroom in the rain.

The closure of some socially polluting newspapers is really good news for the general Cambodian people because it is part and parcel to making society more orderly and prosperous, avoiding anarchy as well as national discord and disunity.

By: Khmer intellectual