By: Ker Munthit, Associated Press Writer (AP) Michael Hayes knew nothing about running a newspaper. Nor did his wife, Kathleen O'Keefe, who had spent more time fixing computer glitches than bad grammar.
But with $50,000 in savings, two computers, and a fax machine, the American couple started Cambodia's first English-language newspaper, which celebrates its 10th anniversary on Wednesday.
Today, the biweekly
Phnom Penh Post is a respected member of the unruly press in this war-ravaged country -- even if it sometimes draws the ire of the Cambodian government.
"It is of very high standard," Lao Mong Hay, a democracy advocate, said of the paper.
Hayes and O'Keefe, who are now divorced but still work together, started the
Post in an unstable country that was just emerging from decades of civil war.
Hayes, who had a graduate degree in international studies, had traveled to Cambodia from Bangkok looking for work when he came up with the idea. "There was no (independent) paper, so I thought probably I should start one," said Hayes, 50, a native of Wellesley, Mass. His lack of journalism experience didn't get in the way.
"Starting the paper that first year was ... really rewarding. People were reading the paper; they liked it. It was new, fresh," Hayes said.
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.
After a 1991 Paris accord, United Nations peacekeepers oversaw a peace plan tied to general elections in 1993 that set Cambodia on the road to democracy.
After much persistence, Hayes obtained permission from King Norodom Sihanouk to start the newspaper. The monarch also gave Hayes' paper a blessing -- for a "very long life."
The paper's critical tone has made it few friends in 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.
But the government has left the
Post alone, as it has about 200 other Khmer-language private newspapers that have blossomed since the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
The
Post started in a Phnom Penh villa with a staff of six. The first eight-page issue was printed in Bangkok and flown to Phnom Penh.
Printing was moved to Phnom Penh five years ago and the staff has more than tripled. There are eight reporters, most of them Westerners.
The
Post's 3,000 copies are read mostly by expatriates, overseas subscribers, and government officials. It costs 80 cents, too expensive for most people in a country where the average monthly salary of a government clerk is $20.
Today, the
Post's biggest challenge is the bottom line.
O'Keefe and Hayes said the
Post just breaks even. Advertising fills less than 30% of the paper's 16 pages.
"You know 10 years is a long time," Hayes said. "But I don't want to see the paper die."
On the Net:
Phnom Penh Post
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here