The 40th Annual Gathering/13th General Conference and Associated Meetings of the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) were opened officially this evening under the presidency of H.E. Sok An, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers.
The three-day gathering is of significance, further raising the spirits of solidarity, friendship, and cooperation among professionals in broadcasting, journalism and related fields in the region.
“I strongly hope that the event will further promote professional ethics in writing, reporting, and broadcasting the information and news in an impartial way and with strict adherence to journalism code of ethics and highest quality of ethical behaviors and integrity,” he added.
H.E. Sok An also laid stress on the the Royal Government of Cambodia’s efforts in actively promoting the freedom of press and expression, where all types of media, both local and foreign, can write, report and broadcast their news freely. As a result, print media have grown significantly from very few in 1980s to around a thousand today while radio stations have also increased dramatically, close to 200. Regarding TVs, we currently have 14 licensed TV stations in operation. In addition, cable TVs have become very popular throughout Cambodia, including households in the rural areas.
Although new media and social media are playing an increasingly active role in the global society, broadcasting media remain an important channel through which information, education-related programs and entertainment are disseminated to the public, attracting millions of viewers to their enriched programs, said the Cambodian DPM, underlining that with the latest technology, broadcasting institutions in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond have also embarked upon serving their audiences so that they can catch up with the latest developments and meet their needs of information surfing around the world.
For digital broadcasting, H.E. Sok An encouraged AIBD to continue to closely cooperate with its members and partners to invest more resources in capacity building and training for content providers and technology developers to cope with the daily increasing needs by the public.
By Khan Sophirom