Tuesday, 19 August 2008

Presses stop rolling for Mekong Times

Cambodge Soir
19-08-2008

The Mekong Times started in February 2008 as an English language newspaper. Published by the MCD (Media Consulting and Development) group, the last issue came out on Monday August 18.

Publisher Sébastien Drans declared that "the publication is stopped from today onwards as one of our investors decided to cease his collaboration with us. No immediate solutions are available but we are considering other options such as publishing in a different format”.

The 16-page Mekong Times was published five times a week: four of its pages were in Khmer. Pierre Gilette, the former editor-in Chief of Cambodge Soir in its daily version was co-editor with Jérôme Jaymond. Neth Pheaktra was editor-in-chief.

Interviewed by Cambodge Soir Hebdo, Khieu Kanharith, the Minister of Information declared that “[he] regretted the closure of this professional newspaper. The end of this title marks the end of a voice. The Cambodian Market is a difficult one due to the lack of readers. Also, many readers are more inclined to rent newspapers from the newsstands rather than buy them. It is also difficult to find its position among older titles such as the Cambodia Daily.”

Cambodia now has two daily English publications The Phnom Penh Post and The Cambodian Daily.

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