Friday, 11 January 2008

Publisher Urges Municipal Court to Demand $20,000 from Radio Free Asia

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 542

Phnom Penh: Mr. Bernard Krisher, the publisher of The Cambodia Daily, said on 6 January 2008 that he explained to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on 25 December 2007 his lawsuit against Radio Free Asia [RFA] demanding approximately US$20,000 compensation, because RFA copied all pieces of information from them, The Cambodia Daily for more than ten years.

“During October 2007, Mr. Kem Sos, the President of the Khmer service of RFA, gave explanations to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court regarding the lawsuit of The Cambodia Daily.

Mr. Kem Sos made no comment when Koh Santepheap contacted him by phone, but he passed questions on to his lawyer to answer instead of him, but also the lawyer did not make any comment.

“Mr. Bernard Krisher added that for two years, RFA had copied and faxed all pieces of information from The Cambodia Daily from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, and then they sent it to the United States.

He affirmed, ‘We will not allow this, no matter how much would be paid, because it is a violation of copyright legislation of the country.

They can quote some pieces of information but not all – for example for teaching students.’ “A RFA staff member, who asked that his name should not to be mentioned, said that as far as he knows, this issue had already been settled between the leaders of the two institutions.

The same staff member said that the lawsuit might have already been finished. “However, a RFA staff member had said that some issues were to be decided by the [RFA] leaders in Washington, USA. “Mr. Bernard Krisher went on to say, ‘We want the court to demand the money from RFA to be paid into our account. Then we will use that money to help poor people, such as by constructing school buildings in Kandal etc.’

He continued to say that when he was explaining the issue to the court, the court required him to give them the name and the address of the president of RFA, and he gave this information already to the court. “

Mr. Bernard Krisher added, ‘According to law, they cannot copy all pieces of information from The Cambodia Daily; previously they had acknowledged that they were guilty and they said they would not commit the offense any longer, but later on they did the same.’

He continued that during the first two years, he wrote to Mr. Kem Sos about this issue and there was an apology at that time, but after that, they said that they were not guilty concerning this issue.

Therefore, Mr. Bernard Krisher decided to file a complaint to the court, asking for help to find justice.

“The publisher of The Cambodia Daily affirmed that previously, the Sam Rainsy Party had copied whole articles and posted them on their homepage, but he wrote to them and then they paid $2,000 and promised not to continue to do what they had done any longer.

He continued that also the United Nations Development Program used to do the same, but they paid US$5,000. ‘We do not prohibit to quote from the content for publication, but not the whole content.” Koh Santepheap, Vol.41, #6239, 8.1.2008

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