Cambodian Minister of Information H.E. Khieu Kanharith attended via videoconference this morning the Asia Media Summit 2022 organised by the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) with its partners and international organisations and hosted by Fiji.

Addressing to the Ministerial Session: Strengthening Media in a Changing World, H.E. Khieu Kanharith said AMS is a bookmarked event for all broadcasters in the region and a highly anticipated summit that offers broadcasters a marvelous platform to discuss relevant issues that requires special highlights.

He added that the topic for this session “Strengthening Media in a Changing World” could not have been more apt, considering how the media is evolving and progressing at a rapid pace. Given that this transformation is also driven by the change in media consumer behaviour, where new technologies are allowing consumers to produce and curate their own content. This is also compelling media providers to seek methods on how to retain the audience.

“We must work together to remain in this landscape. It is up to all media practitioners to find out ways on how each and every one of us can survive. And not only survive – we need to thrive! There is also a dire need to highlight the critical roles played by the broadcast media,” H.E. Minister said.

“All across the globe, particularly in the more developed nations, we are seeing a massive shift of audience from traditional to online media. This is also true for underdeveloped nations; however, we cannot forget the part of the population that is dependent on the traditional media,” he continued.

H.E. Khieu Kanharith pointed out that Cambodia has 220 radio stations in the capital and provinces, 19 analogue Television channels and 8 Digital TV channels, 447 newspapers, 706 homepages, 81 online TV, 7 OTT, 210 cable TV and 2 satellite stations

The Cambodian information minister said we can see many Cambodian families are still dependent on traditional media for not only their news, but also for education, awareness and entertainment. However, many young Cambodians are using the internet as their primary source of information.

“Now, the impacts created by the Covid-19 pandemic in its initial stages, minimised the role of digital media – for a short time! The audiences were tuned into more traditional channels to gather the latest information from official sources. This however also created some danger for the media themselves, as they were challenged on several fronts such as the mass panic and overflood of misinformation, contradicting and confusing the public perceptions, and creating global infodemics,” he noted.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press