Equity News back for Cambodia's commune councils election

The Equity News Elections Bulletin, a joint UNDP-TVK project, is retuning to state television and radio for the run-up to the commune councils elections to climax on April 1, said a press release on Friday.

The 15-minute Equity News program will provide coverage of political parties and platforms and follow campaign activities in a wide range of communes throughout the country, said the release jointly issued by Ministry of Information and the UNDP.

It will be broadcast every evening at 07:30 p.m. local time after the regular TVK news on weekdays with a summary edition on Saturdays during the campaign period from March 16 to 30, it said.

Equity News will also resume during the campaign period for the National Elections in 2008, it added.

To mark its return, a ceremony for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith and UNDP Program Director Anne-Isabelle Degryse-Blateau in the presence of the UN Resident Coordinator Douglas Gardner will be held at the Ministry of Information on Monday (February 26).

In 2003, during the parliamentary elections, Equity News was seen as a breakthrough in Cambodian election broadcasting. It was the first time that all main political parties received balanced and impartial coverage on television and radio.

It was also the first time that opposition leaders were both seen and heard on the news explaining their platforms and that the concept of equity was employed as a system of allocating air time coverage for political parties on the electronic media.

Source: Xinhua