When I work as a lifestyle journalist, I write easy articles. I don’t care too much about sources, interviews or quotes. Writing from press releases and other content, the writing is often related to promoting products and services.
But when I started the professional journalism training course at the Cambodian Center Independent Media (CCIM), it was 180 degrees different from my previous experience. I must be careful with the questions that I prepare for politicians, ministers, lawyers, judges and victims etc.… (Sounds so stressful right???) YES… This week me and my classmates were very stressed with political articles.
On Wednesday and Thursday the Phnom Penh Municipal Court held the third week of opposition leader Kem Sokha’s trial. My classmates and I were assigned by our teachers to observe the VOD team at work, and the main objective was to see Mr. Nhim Sokhorn, a senior reporter at VOD, do a live video report. We saw the joys and challenges of live video streaming.
After coming back from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Sylong, Sopich and I were sitting down trying to figure out our news angle, but it was a headache understanding the issue around Kem Sokha’s use of the word “they,” and this was very sensitive. Many media outlets pursued the same angle. Finally, we got an explanation from our teacher Chhorn Chansy about this case and we were able to create a good angle for our article. Sylong completed the article on time and we released it on Newsroom Cambodia.
