Oeung Sary and Lonh Vanna are among the women in Kandal who joined together with their fellow community residents to defend their communal land. From being land activists, they joined the network of citizen journalists in reporting issues in their communities.
Mrs. Oeung Sary, aged 39, was born in Prasat Village, Prek Sleng Commune, Kandal Steung District, Kandal province. Sary had a nuclear family of ten members, all are women excluding her father.
In the family of all daughters, Sary had to do all the hard work and committed to supporting her whole family. Unfortunately, she ended her study at Grade 8 and devoted her entire youth lifetime to social and community works.
Kandal citizen journalist Mrs. Lonh Vanna (picture below), aged 39, knew the citizen journalist network of CCIM through her team leader, Oeung Sary, and has benefited greatly in scaling up her knowledge and professionalism.
Hundreds of villagers in their community have long fought for their “solidarity land” in Ampov Prey commune, claiming that hundreds of hectares of community farm were secretly sold to tycoon Seang Chanheng’s Heng Corporation to construct the Phnom Penh new airport at that time.
The disputed land was then transferred to the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation’s Phnom Penh airport project (OCIC) while around 400 families are still protesting and demanding fair compensation for the lost land.
Oeung Sary engaged in volunteer and social works and received many trainings from local NGOs until she was selected in 2015 as Community Representative on the Promotion of Human Rights and Land with the Coalition of Cambodian Farmers Community (CCFC).
During her tenure as community representative, she built a strong network with human rights activists, local NGOs and media friends to spread out the issues. However, she criticized that the professional journalists sometimes did not pick up her stories as they viewed it as small or insignificant.
“It is common that professional journalists or reporters not interested in land issues. Unless we rallied to protest on the street to demand for government intervention in Phnom Penh. In some occasions, they did publish our stories but it was not timely or detailed enough to voice our concerns”, she added.
Mrs. Sary became citizen journalist team leader in Kandal in 2021 after undergoing “Basic Leadership & Advocacy Training”. Under the auspice of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM), she was trained on other core skills such as Physical and Digital Security, Mobile Journalism and Hard News Writing and Reporting Skills on Human Rights as well as legal aspects of press law and freedom of expression.
She observes that poor people and effected communities rarely catch the media attention while they are struggling and fighting for their land rights and affordable living. Using the gained skills, she was determined to write community stories and make a better condition for those who are calling for effective interventions in their land dispute.
Most importantly, Sary produced several news videos published on CJ News Facebook Page, describing a woman who carried her son on her chest whiling protesting on the street in Phnom Penh in the controversial land conflict with OCIC Company, and who told she suffered mental and emotional distress due to prolonged solutions.
“I can help affected communities, those involved in land disputes and disseminate information to the public faster and accurately. Citizen Journalists play an important role in bringing the concerns of victims to relevant authorities for solutions”, she added.
She continues that women journalists should help and encourage others to be more active in social work and address the issues facing them in the local communities.
“On behalf of women citizen journalists, we must help promote social work and encourage other women CJs to become the role models in disseminating community concerns”, she added.
Under CCIM’s guidance and support, Sary has produced five stories, including four videos and one text article, mostly focused on land and gender issues.
Besides these advantages, Lonh Vanna said the team helped each other practice covering news stories and worked closely together when they felt their member’s physical security was at stake.
“I constantly learn and improve my knowledge and skill. We do it as team and we met regularly once a week to discuss and brainstorm story ideas. With support from my colleagues, I felt confident to write and report pressing issues in my community. That why I took it upon myself to be a citizen journalist with CCIM”, she added.
Despite the knowledge and skills gained on basic journalism and ethical reporting, Mrs. Sary said female citizen journalists, especially those who report on human rights and land issues, could not maintain their jobs as CJs properly due to several factors including: gender discrimination based on political opinions, need to enhance CJ’s journalistic and reporting skills, limited cooperation with local authorities to access public information, restrictions and security issues when reporting sensitive issues, and diversified skill trainings to empower citizen journalists.
CCIM’s Media Development Director, Mrs. Chhan Sokunthea, said that land issues and forced evictions have been an on-going issue in Cambodia, and affected women and children in particular who are displaced from their land.
She added women are strongly encouraged to join citizen journalist network with the aim to promote gender in the media and issues facing them.
Mrs. Sokunthea asserted that CCIM also provided physical security training and contingency plans to support all citizen journalists, especially women and IPs, on top of the mental and legal support wherever they find themselves in danger. “We prioritize CJs’ physical security over the other things. We do not send them to report on sensitive issues. They are advised to do what is doable while the emergency measures are put in place”, she added. (Pich Chamrong)
