CTN to Reduce Live Coverage of KR Tribunal

Station does not have enough time to broadcast ECCC live, director says 

National television station station CTN is reducing its live coverage of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the network said yesterday. Since the ECCC started hearing cases in 2009, CTN has run live broadcasts from the court. Sam Chhaya. Deputy Director General of CTN would not say when th3e live broadcast reduction would start or by how much it would be reduced. “We will not do live ECCC broadcasts all the time due to other programs increasing a lot ... We received a lot of advertising and programs. We do not have enough time for live broadcasts on the trial all the time,” Mr. Chhaya said. “We will still go live on parts of the trial that are important,” he said. Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said that CTN has the right to reduce its live coverage of the court, but the UN and the ECCC should ensure that the tribunal is somehow televised at all times. “It is important for villagers to hear and see the trial directly by the TV,” he said. “Villagers that are the victims have been waiting to hear the trial for 30 years, and a new generation has to learn from the experience of real history,” Mr. Chhang added, noting that the current proceedings-in which three senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime are on trial are “the most important.” ECCC spokesman Neth Pheaktra said that the tribunal is thankful for CTN’s coverage and that its decision to reduce coverage will have minimal effect. “Even if there is no live coverage from the tribunal, we believe that thousands of villagers who come to hear the trial will spread the process of the trial to other villagers,” he said. “TV stations, radio and other media will run brief spots on the trial that will be seen by other villagers,” he added.