Michael Hayes knew nothing about running a newspaper. Nor did his wife, Kathleen O’Keefe, who had more expertise in fixing computer glitches than bad grammar.
But with $50 000 of their savings, the American couple came in as outsiders into the world of journalism to start Cambodia’s first English language newspaper 10 years ago on Wednesday.
Today, the fortnightly Phnom Penh Post has become part of Cambodia’s history, standing high as the most respected member of a vibrant – if often unruly – press in this war-ravaged country.
”It is of very high standard. It’s more like the international magazines – Time, Newsweek, Far Eastern Economic Review,” said Lao Mong Hay, a democracy advocate.
When Hayes and O’Keefe – who were married at the time, but later divorced and continued to work together – started the Post, they were setting off in uncharted waters in an unstable country just emerging from decades of civil war.
Hayes had previously worked for a US-based non-governmental organisation, The Asia Foundation, in Bangkok, Thailand.
After quitting in 1991, he visited Cambodia several times to look for work, then spotted an opportunity to start a newspaper for ”pure adventure.”
”There was no (independent) paper, so I thought probably I should start one,” said Hayes (50) a native of Wellesley, Massachusetts. With a graduate degree in international studies, he had no journalism background and his friends thought he was crazy.
”Starting the paper that first year was … really rewarding. People were reading the paper; they liked it. It was new, fresh,” said the chain-smoking Hayes in an interview in his office.
The early ’90s were tumultuous times for Cambodia. The genocidal Khmer Rouge regime – blamed for the deaths of at least 1,7-million people – had been ousted in 1979, but its cadres were still fighting a guerrilla war against a weak government riven by factional warfare. After a 1991 Paris accord, UN peacekeeping forces assumed responsibility for implementing a peace plan tied to general elections in 1993 that set Cambodia on the road to democracy.
Despite the uncertainties – and perhaps because of them ? the risk of starting a newspaper was worth taking, said O’Keefe (42) of Medford, Massachusetts. O’Keefe used to work for a refugee organisation in Bangkok before joining Hayes to start the paper.
With good-humoured persistence, Hayes obtained permission from King Norodom Sihanouk to start the newspaper. The monarch also gave Hayes’ paper a blessing of a ”very long life.”
With two Macintosh computers and a fax machine, the Post started in a Phnom Penh villa with a staff of six including an editor and the two founders who doubled as reporters. The reports were sent to a press in Bangkok where the Post’s first eight-page issue rolled out and then was flown to Phnom Penh.
It started printing in Cambodia five years ago. Today it has 20 people on its staff including three editors and eight reporters, most of them Westerners.
But with Cambodia’s low literacy rate, the Post’s 3 000 copies are read largely by expatriates, overseas subscribers and senior government officials. Its 3 500 riel (US 80 cents) cost makes it unaffordable in a country where the average salary of a government clerk is $20 per month.
The paper’s critical tone doesn’t endear itself to the government.
Deputy Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said the Post’s coverage of Cambodian affairs lacks objectivity and balance, and is heavily influenced by the ”Western mindset” of the foreigners working for it.
However, the government has largely let the Post operate without hindrance, as it has some 200 other Khmer-language private newspapers that have mushroomed under the guaranteed press freedom.
Still, many Khmer newspapers tend to be messy. They have a reputation of ignoring professional rules and blatantly promoting either the ruling party or the opposition.
Critics and supporters say the Post is among the few newspapers such as English-language The Cambodia Daily that sets a high standard for Cambodian media.
Today, the newspaper?s biggest challenge is finance.
O’Keefe said the Post survives on break-even expenditure and revenues. Advertising accounts for less than 30% of the space in the paper’s 16-pages.
”You know 10 years is a long time. But I don’t want to see the paper die,” said Hayes. – Sapa-AP