Cambodia’s military TV station restarts airing Thai movie after a decade absence

Phnom Penh (3 Jan, 2014): Cambodian TV station channel 5 under control of the Ministry of National Defense with joined venture from a Thai company this week has begun showing a video dramas at nights after all TV stations of the nation completely stopped airing any Thai movie since Jan 2003.

The movie with the title of “Life Raft” has been seen for the first time after a group of Cambodian nationalists set fire to the Thai embassy and a few other businesses in Phnom Penh on 29 January 2003. In their reaction, a group of Thai nationalists also burned the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok, leading the two nations’ 50-year diplomatic relation to get break apart.

The riots were sparked after a report said that Thai actress Suwanna “Kob” Konying had said that Cambodia’s top cultural icon Angkor Wat temple belonged to Thailand and she would never visit Cambodia until the country gives the temple back to Thailand. Konying then denied making the comments.

Thailand then under Prime Minister Thaksin’s control asked Cambodia to pay for the damage estimated up to US$56 million.

Since then, no single TV station out of the 12 Phnom Penh-based national TV stations has aired any Thai movie and replaced by American, Chinese, Filipino, Hong Kong, Indian, Korean (South), Singaporean, and Taiwanese movies.

General Neang Phat, the Ministry of National Defense Secretary of State who is in charge of TV5 could not be reached for comment on Friday.