UNDP and national TV network address Cambodia’s extractive industries development

UNDP Cambodia and the National Television of Cambodia (TVK) embarked on an ambitious series of television programmes about Cambodia’s oil, gas and mining sectors with the launch of the “Workshop on Informed and Balanced Coverage: Strengthening Equity Weekly’s Capacity to Cover the Extractive Industry” on June 29^th and 30^th in Phnom Penh.

The Extractive Industries TV initiative is a partnership of UNDP’s Strengthening Democracy and Electoral Processes in Cambodia project, TVK and Oxfam America. Oxfam America is partnering with the Equity Weekly television programme in developing a series of documentaries focused on the extractive industries as part of its regional programme to support the responsible management and development of oil, gas and mining sectors throughout South East Asia.

Equity Weekly is a current affairs television program that is co-produced by UNDP and TVK and broadcast on TVK each Sunday night since 2007. The Equity Weekly journalists explore a wide range of subjects and themes – from health care in Cambodia, to education, and efforts to protect the environment from climate change. The goal of the program is to provide the democratic space for a national dialogue for all citizens on the issues of key concern to Cambodians at a critical time in the nation’s development.

The two-day workshop provided an opportunity for the 17 journalists of the Equity Weekly programme to hear from, and interact with, key stakeholders in the extractive industries field, through small group panel sessions featuring experts from the government, industry, and civil society sectors. Opposition and ruling party MPs also shared their views on the management of the extractive industries sector in Cambodia.

The seminar was launched with a keynote address by His Excellency Kem Gunnawadh, the Director General of TVK.  “The Equity Weekly Programme has been supported from all levels of our society, especially from the government leader, the Prime Minister Hun Sen, as well as all political parties at all levels because Equity Programme has shown the viewers about the things that are happening in our society and the contribution from all sides in order to solve the problems which are happening in our society,” H.E. Gunnawadh said.

Solinn Lim, Coordinator of Oxfam’s Extractive Industries programme, then took the journalists and other observers through the recent history of Cambodia’s management of the extractive industries; Cambodia is on the brink of what could be major oil discoveries off its shores in the Gulf of Thailand, and one mining company is preparing a major gold extraction operation in Mondulkiri province. According to Ms. Lim, there are many considerations to be made, from revenue management to environmental protection, in developing Cambodia’s extractive industries.

By the end of the workshop, the Equity Weekly journalists had developed a long list of story ideas that will now be turned into documentary features that make up the weekly national broadcast. The special series on extractive industries will debut in August with a focus on the gold mining operation in Mondulkiri province, where prospects are good that an Australian company will mine two to three million ounces of gold. Equity Weekly reporters will look at the potential, and the pitfalls, of bringing large-scale mining to an area inhabited by indigenous communities that have conducted small-scale mining in the same area for many years.

“This workshop was really a very rare opportunity for journalists to have such exclusive access to such a broad range of sources, and is unlike anything I have experienced in the media development sector,” said Wayne Sharpe, UNDP’s Chief Editor of the Equity Weekly programme. “This workshop gives our journalists a running start to producing accurate, balanced, and engaging coverage of the industries that will play a critical role in Cambodia’s economic development for years to come.”

The Extractive Industries TV initiative is a cost-sharing agreement between UNDP and Oxfam America. The Equity Weekly programme is financially supported by AusAID (Australian Government), Irish Aid (Government of Ireland), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).