Journalist union urges end to fake news dissemination
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Report details violence against journalists
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More than 1,000 cases of fake, objectionable news identified
Tue, 19 January 2021
In 2020, the Ministry of Information identified sources of objectionable or illegal material on social media including fake news and disinformation, various incitements, unfair criticism of the nation’s leadership and insults to the King totalling 1,343 cases.
The ministry revoked, among others, three media licences of organisations that violated the law in 2020, according to Phos Sovann, director-general of the ministry’s General Department of Information and Broadcasting.
At the forum on Internet Safety during Covid-19 pandemic on January 19, Sovann said more than 1,000 instances of fake news and disinformation had been spread by at least 103 different social media sources over the course of 2020.
Some have even been broadcasting fake news, which constitutes a crime, Hun Sen noted.
The prime minister made the statement to mark his 5th annual media correspondents’ meeting scheduled for January 14, which was cancelled this year due to Covid-19 concerns.
“I strongly urge all journalists to just stick to the facts and do things the right way. You’re supposed to be professionals, so act like one. Don’t resort to insults or gossip and don’t go out of your way to offend people or go around making things up, either,” he wrote.
Hun Sen said a small cadre of corrupt journalists had spent the whole past year extorting people and taking bribes, either in exchange for dropping scandalous stories or promoting profitable lies.