Today’s post is about
how I became interested in journalism and how it started.
It was the reading of
the English-languaged newspaper with a view to learning the language that
inspired me to enter the journalism world – of course, unknowingly.
In September 1996, I
first set my foot in Phnom Penh after I left high school in my home district of
Koh Sautin.
In the same month, I
began my English classes one hour a day in Preah Yukunthor high school –
starting with a book called Headway Elementary. About three months later, I
started reading the English-languaged newspaper, The Cambodia Daily, although
I could read and understand just a few sentences in the entire paper.
I entered the classroom
every day with The Cambodia Daily in my hand, but I had no idea what the day’s
coverage was about. I consulted with the dictionary for almost every word in
the headlines.
I always admired the
authors of the articles and thought one day I would be able to write just like
them. After three years I read The Cambodia Daily with more confidence and
better understanding of the content. I often memorized some articles of my
personal interest so that I could converse with my foreign teacher. By that
time, I not only read but also critiqued every article in the paper. I followed
articles by certain reporters to find out that some passages or quotes they put
in the stories were biased.
In January 2001, I got
my first full-time job as a translator at a company, which was commissioned by
the country’s leading mobile phone company to create the first bilingual
Internet portal – everyday.com.kh.
There, I was fortunate
to work under the supervision of a veteran journalist - Mr. Ouk Kimseng, who is
now an adviser to the ministry of information and deputy director general of
Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP). At that time, he was helping the company to
create Khmer and English news content for the portal. First, he assigned me to
translate news articles from English to Khmer and vice versa. Sometimes, he
asked me to rewrite stories based on local newspaper articles. I must say he
was my first journalism instructor. He taught me how to write a news story. I
learned it with enthusiasm. Later on, another journalist joined the team – Mr.
Khiev Phirum who now works for the Phnom Penh Post Khmer. That’s when I started
to get involved in journalism.
In 2002, I applied for
a scholarship for a three-month advanced journalism course, which was
advertised in The Cambodia Daily. The course was intended for working
journalists from Cambodia, Loas, Myanmar (I like to call it Burma, anyway) and
Vietnam.
I did not really meet
the selection criteria – applicants must be either working journalist or
someone with basic journalism training – but I was selected for the scholarship
– as I found out later – because of my knowledge of Internet. The instructor
thought I would be helpful to other participants when it comes to Internet and
email use.
The course was
organized at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and the instructors were Jeff
Hodson and Peter Starr as well as Bonnie Huang (I am not sure if I spell her
name correctly here). The course was very useful for me and it did help me
improve my journalism knowledge.
In mid-2003, during the
national election time, I quit my job at the company maintaining the
everyday.com.kh web portal and took a position as information consultant at The
Asia Foundation. I was part of a team responsible for the creation of an
election Website – bohchnout.info. (For some reason, the site is no longer on
the world wide web now).
In November 2005, I
left The Asia Foundation to join Radio Free Asia’s Phnom Penh-based bureau as a
web editor. This time I was involved with online journalism. I was sent to the
United States twice for trainings on how to use content management system (CMS),
online journalism and multimedia. Again, these short-term trainings further
improved my journalism skills.
Late last year, I
decided to join a PR company, Quantum Publicity (www.quantumpublicity.asia). The
company was run by Mr. Glen Felgate, former General Manager of CTN, the country’s
number one TV channel. He is also former BBC and Reuters journalist. Besides
doing PR work for our clients, I am currently responsible for the production of
daily 30-minute English news bulletin for the new 24-hour news channel CNC
under the supervision of my boss Glen Felgate.
He has trained me in
camerawork, story writing, editing, and news presentation. Officially, I am now
a TV news producer and sometimes a presenter.
And that’s it. Hope you
enjoy reading my post. Have a nice weekend!
