Challenges for Independent Media Report 2015

Click here to view the report in pdf file

The year 2015 saw a slight reprieve in the violence against journalists that marred the previous year, when two journalists were murdered in the line of work, but simultaneously saw an uptick in the prosecutions of netizens for speaking their mind on the Internet, and Facebook in particular. Among those prosecuted for engaging in online free expression in 2015 were opposition lawmakers, students and a migrant worker.

Though journalists have so far avoided lawsuits related to reports posted online, the prosecutions of citizens have had a chilling effect, with 58% of those surveyed in CCIM’s Annual Attitudes Survey of Professional Journalists saying they did not feel completely free to report on all subjects without fear of interference or repercussions — a more than 10% increase over the year before. Strikingly, almost a third of journalists who did not always feel free to report said they felt that way due to pressure from their own editors, producers, publishers or news outlet owners, and the majority of journalists (53%) said their news outlet was not completely independent, or free from influences by political or business interests.

Despite these concerns over the lack of media independence and the rise in self-censorship, the majority of journalists included in the survey saw the country’s media industry as steadily improving. Almost 71% of those surveyed for the 2015 report agreed that the media sector was headed in the right direction, again representing a more positive view than the year before, during which just 63% of journalists took a positive view of their industry’s progress.

As with the 2014 survey, a number of journalists in this year’s research pointed to the Internet as their source of optimism for the future of Cambodian media. The Internet is the country’s fastest-growing medium and in 2015 reached 39% of the population, overtaking radio’s No. 2 slot for audience and reach. The Internet is now exceeded in its reach only by television, which maintains a nearly 96% penetration rate. However, despite the promise posed for independent media by the rise of the Internet, optimism should be tempered by the reality of increasing efforts to restrict online free speech, including the draft Cybercrime Law, as well as by the fact that only about 24% of Internet users report using the medium to access news and information, according to recent research.

Overall, the progress made toward increased media independence in 2015 was mixed. While journalists expressed optimism about the direction in which their sector was heading, at least part of their optimism was linked to the rise of the Internet, which is increasingly under threat. Other sources of optimism included the reduction in killings and violence against journalists as compared to the year before, but this reduction comes at a time when journalists reported increasingly engaging in self-censorship, raising concerns that journalists’ optimistic outlook for their sector may not be entirely merited, and that efforts to produce uncensored, independent media might still be met with opposition in the future.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.