We started on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 and today is Saturday, January 4, 2020, so it has been a few weeks since I joined the professional journalism training course at CCIM.
It is seven years since I became a lifestyle journalist. Where I usually appear are luxury hotels or five-star hotels, nice restaurants, modern automotive dealerships, businesses and fashion events, etc. … any place where people can enjoy their lifestyles and spend their money to release their stress. But I really don’t know about places where people face violence, where they hurt and lose their beloved in life.
This week I had a new experience in my training class with my team, called B2G (Two Boys & One Girl). We are working on a story with a news angle about “Monks Face Restrictions to Their Freedoms While Practicing Non-Violent Activism in Cambodia.” And we are interviewing those involved in this topic, such as civil society organizations, NGOs, monks, local authorities, leaders of the Mother Nature environmental group. I am responsible for interviewing monk Keut Saray, the leader of a monk pilgrimage campaign from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville to push for authorities to remove casino Jing Ding from Koh Rong island beach.
I also joined and photographed the event “Two former CNRP lawmakers on Thursday, January 2, 2020 announce a new political party, the Cambodia Nation Love Party at Sunway Hotel Phnom Penh” with Mr. Vann Vichar, a VOD Reporter, and my team member Mr. Sylong Aun, who is a trainee with me.
When I turned on RFA radio online on my smartphone, a usual part of my daily routine, on the night of January 2 something touched my brain about one headline, “6 Years After Deadly Crackdown at Canadia Industrial Park along Veng Sreng Street on January 3, 2014, Victims’ Families Say No Hope for Justice,” and especially about Khim Sophat, the little boy who disappeared and is thought to have been shot dead during the crackdown but whose remains still have not been found.
On the morning of Friday, January 3 I was assigned by my trainer Mr. Chhorn Chansy and Mr. Michael Dickison go with Mr. Sok Heng, VOD reporter, to attend and cover the story, “The Remembrance Day of 6 Years Anniversary of Violent Crackdown,” a ceremony held at labor NGO Central.
