AsiaLIFE

Unlike many parts of the world, Cambodia’s virtual community remains relatively free from government censorship, but for how much longer. Nina Lamparski talks to some Cloggers.

At the end of September, the Revolutionary Courts in Tehran found Canadian-Iranian blogger and journalist Hossein Derakhshan guilty of speaking his mind and sentenced him to 19.5 years’ imprisonment. Officially, the verdict stated that ‘Hoder,’ as he is known online, had cooperated with hostile countries; spread propaganda against the ruling establishment; promoted counter-revolutionary groups; and insulted Islamic thoughts and religious figures.

In reality, Hogger, 35, often referred to as ‘Persian Blogfather’ because he taught an entire generation of Iranians how to blog, was punished for expressing his opinions on the Web and encouraging others to voice theirs. “There’s freedom of speech in Iran, but there is no freedom after speech in Iran,” commented Iranian blogger Nikahang Kowsar in the aftermath of Derakhshan’s sentencing.

Closer to home, Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh spent ten days in jail last September for allegedly violating Article 258 of her country’s criminal code. Authorities accused her website Mẹ Nấm (meaning ‘Mother Mushroom’) of "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State", because it featured posts against China’s interference in national affairs. Following her release from prison, Nguyen briefly stopped blogging but has since started again and remains under police surveillance.

According to Reporters without Borders (RWB), at least 151 bloggers and cyber-dissidents were detained worldwide in 2009. “In authoritarian countries in which the traditional media are state-controlled, the Internet is the crucible in which repressed civil societies can revive and develop,” observed the organisation in its recent Web 2.0 versus Control 2.0 report.

Unlike Vietnam and Myanmar, which both feature on RWB’s Press Freedom Predators List 2010, Cambodia has so far largely steered clear of censoring online commentators. The only publicised instance of direct government interference occurred last year, when the Ministry of Women’s Affairs blocked domestic access to the reahu.net website of Khmer-American artist Koke Lor, after he uploaded “pornographic” and “degrading” photographs of bare-breasted Apsara dancers.

But generally speaking, the Internet remains a marginal rather than mass medium in Cambodia, and therefore appears non-threatening to powerbrokers. Figures released in October by online data provider Internet World Stats showed that just 0.8 percent (or 113,380) of the Kingdom’s 14.7 million inhabitants are regular Internet users. As a result, Cambodia’s blogger community–whose members are known as Cloggers–is still in its infancy.

Most blogs written in Khmer Unicode are not about politics, but rather evolve around “young people’s daily lives”, according to Chantra Be, one of Cambodia’s most prominent bloggers and co-organiser of Phnom Penh’s annual BarCamp event. Held in late September, the tech forum united scores of local and international open-source supporters, social media fans, web entrepreneurs, software companies, digital journalists and students.

“Many Cambodians use their blogs like a diary, to talk about personal things, like what they did during the day,” says Be who works as social media manager for local tech firm Sabay. “Blogs here often aren’t created for an outside or anonymous crowd, but to network with your friends.”

Still in his 20s, Be is already considered a veteran in Cambodia’s nascent online scene. Back in 2006, together with four other bloggers, including well-known political journalist Tharum Bun, Be formed the Team Clogger collective that organised university workshops across the country to help more than 2,000 students become Web-proficient.

“We explained basic IT skills, how to send emails, browse the Web and use blogs,” says Be. “The workshops were very successful because Cambodians want to learn about these new technologies. They know it will help them in their careers. They are much more connected to the outside world than previous generations.”

The regular training sessions culminated in the 2007 Cloggers Summit, uniting bloggers, web journalists, scholars and social media fans from around the world on Cambodian soil. The following year, the summit was replaced by Phnom Penh’s first BarCamp gathering, which attracted around 300 people. “Now, we had more than 1,000,” says Be of the 2010 edition.

But the rising interest in online communication does not necessarily generate more blogs. “My recent research shows that blogs are stagnating. The same goes for platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, which are mainly used by companies to promote their products. Facebook on the other hand is exploding. In the last four months or so, the number of Cambodian Facebook users has jumped from 60,000 to almost 120,000.”

In Be’s opinion, the social network’s popularity is partially due to it being “like a personal diary but much easier and quicker to use than blogs.”

Most importantly, Facebook makes computers obsolete because the website can be accessed and updated from anywhere in Cambodia via mobile phones, which are owned by a whopping 6.5 million people, based upon latest statistics by international information consultancy Budde Communication.

In essence, Cambodia’s weak Internet penetration, coupled with a culture where interpersonal relationships still overrule public debates, have kept young Khmers from embracing blogging en masse with the same fervour as neighbouring Asian countries. In its new study Cambodia – A Land of Opportunity, the Konrad Adenauer research foundation notes that “many start blogs and then quit, leaving a small but fiercely dedicated group of young men and women to provide thoughtful commentary on issues facing the country”.

Among them is journalist Kounila Keo who won first prize in the blogging competition of this year’s Blogfest.Asia, held in Penang in late October. Her website www.blueladyblog.com, launched in January 2007, acts as a gatekeeper of Cambodian life, featuring posts like Nepotism: A Family Problem, Status of Cambodian Women, and How Can You Keep Yourself Free from Corruption?

“The main topics on my blog are my take on Cambodian education, politics, lifestyle, press freedom, culture and simply social issues I deem necessary to address, for example human and women’s rights,” explains Keo.

“I blog because I want to express my personal opinions about some particular issues that mainstream media might not publish. The mainstream media stick to a certain kind of agenda to avoid the government’s censorship. The voice that cannot be heard in the real word is now heard in the virtual world.”

Although progress might be slow, Keo believes social media platforms are definitely changing the way that young Cambodians communicate.

“Blogging popularity has grown among high school and especially university students who embrace open-mindedness, new thoughts and opinions,” she says. “They start to talk about something such as politics, which isn’t really a welcomed topic. The old generation have been taught to be silent so they become safe. Yet, the young generation these days learn to be more expressive and break social taboos.”

For now, the voices of Keo and other political Cloggers continue to resound in Cambodia’s virtual world. However, there are signs that this could potentially change in the near future. In January 2009, the Ministry of Information announced it was re-drafting current media regulations to include the Internet, yet insisted that the revised version would not curtail press freedom.

But in March this year, the state-owned Telecom Cambodia caused considerable public outcry when its deputy director, referring to the legislative changes, told a local newspaper: “If any website attacks the government or displays inappropriate images such as pornography, we can block all of them.”

While government officials denied the claims, a justified sense of unease continues to linger within media circles. “I am quite concerned about the future of freedom of expression in the Cambodian bloggersphere,” admits Keo. “The government has been tight-lipped about the regulations and says that it'll take a few years before they are released. If the regulations were to be peremptory, the critical online community would surely face censorship like in Vietnam. And, I hate to say that Cambodia might be the next to join the domino effect of limiting and censoring online voices in Southeast Asia.”