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2 His Majesty’s Birthday Our Best Birthday Wishes for Good Health and Happiness to Samdach Ta Norodom Sihanouk HOPE worldwide staffs and manages the Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE in Phnom Penh. Our goal is to provide a center for the further education and training of medical professionals while delivering 24 hour high quality free care for the poor and needy. The hospital has provided over 740,000 patient consultations in the ten years since its inception. We are grateful for the support given by you to help the health needs of those less fortunate. Our Sincerest Congratulation Our Warmest Congratulations To His Majesty King To Samdech Ta Norodom Sihanouk, Norodom Sihamoni, Father of Independence, On His Royal Coronation On the Occasion of His 84th Birthday From The Management & Staff of: 313 Sisowath Quay, Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia. Tel: 855-23 426 288, Fax: 855-23 426 392, E-mail: [email protected] Managed by Orchid Hotels & Resorts A Special Supplement to The CAMBODIA DAILY 3 THE MEDIA-CONSCIOUS MONARCH A Master At Crafting His—And His Nation’s—Public Image By Michelle Vachon still are very involved. “His Majesty had a lot of time for ong before today’s media- the press: He built strong, long-last- blitz election campaigns and ing relationships with ‘journos’ like photogenic presidents, the L Bernie Krisher, Nayan Chanda, leader of a small Southeast Asian William Shawcross, Jean La- nation was capturing far more than couture and others,” said Julio his fair share of international media Jeldres, the retired King’s official attention. biographer. Retired King Norodom Siha- “His 5-hour long press confer- nouk, who is celebrating his 84th ences in Peking, Pyongyang or in birthday today, embarked on his Phnom Penh before the 18 March first press campaign more than half [coup ousting him in 1970] were a century ago. legendary,” Jeldres said. In the decades since, the retired In this regard, Norodom Siha- King has grown adept at using the nouk was ahead of his time, said media to reach the public and influ- Alain Daniel, who served as the ence politics in Cambodia and retired King’s private secretary in abroad. the late 1960s as part of an agree- Well-informed on what the ment with the French government. media is saying on any and all “At the time, it was not custom- Recalling his first meeting with monthly magazine L’Echo du Cambodian issues, Norodom Siha- ary [for political leaders] to pay so Norodom Sihanouk at a press Cambodge for reprinting excerpts nouk swiftly responds, these days much attention to the press and to luncheon in 1964, Kamm wrote: “I from a negative review of one of his mostly in writing. the international press,” he said. asked one or two [questions], not feature films that was first pub- Receiving faxes of newspaper “[Norodom Sihanouk] recog- because of a deep interest in Cam- lished in 1971 in the French daily pages with handwritten comments nized before many others the fun- bodia, terra incognita to me, but Le Monde. in the margins from Norodom damental importance of what today because I had found its chief of The 1969 film “Ombres sur Sihanouk are a regular occurrence we call ‘image’. Now there are state a national leader unlike any I Angkor” had been about an alleged today at newspaper offices. media consultants with the techni- had ever met.” plot by the US Central Intelligence As journalists who have had cal expertise to create an image for During that informal talk, Kamm Agency to topple Norodom their word choice or phrasing in a a certain kind of product—there recalls, “He blurted out with disre- Sihanouk. story scrutinized can attest, the are techniques used to launch gard for conventional hypocrisy L’Echo du Cambodge immedi- retired King’s open comments, products. He had realized before truths that statesmen are supposed ately apologized, and the retired which can be harshly critical or anyone else that a country was also to keep for themselves.... More- King did not pursue legal action. sometimes playfully congratulato- in a way a product, and that the over, he dwelt on his country’s “His Majesty’s relations with the ry, create between him and the image Cambodia projected abroad weakness rather than praising pre- press were sometimes tense be- press a very direct relationship. was something vital,” Daniel said. tended strength.” cause he used to reply to every arti- Unlike modern-day political lead- Cambodia often attracted atten- Eleven years earlier, Norodom cle that was presented to him and ers whose media relations consist tion because of its messenger, as Sihanouk had turned to the media that he felt did not convey an accu- of official spokespeople issuing former New York Times corre- in his quest for Cambodia’s inde- rate picture of Cambodia or of his press releases and official commu- spondent Henry Kamm mentions pendence from France. own actions and policies,” Jeldres niques, Norodom Sihanouk’s deal- in his 1998 book “Cambodia, After a visit to Paris in 1953 said. ings with the press have been and Report from a Stricken Land.” where his request had not been “Sometimes the newspapers to taken seriously, he later pleaded which His Majesty wrote did not his cause in a Radio-Canada inter- publish his responses, and this cre- view in Montreal, and in a New ated some tension in the relation- York Times interview in Washing- ship, which was otherwise very ton, DC. healthy,” he added. Soon thereafter, those interviews In the mid-1960s, Norodom Siha- prompted a Washington Post edito- nouk’s relations with the foreign rial in support of Norodom and national media deteriorated. Sihanouk’s cause, writes Milton “On 11 September 1967, [then] Osborne in his 1994 book “Siha- Prince Sihanouk decreed the sup- nouk, Prince of Light, Prince of pression of all newspapers appear- Darkness.” ing in Cambodia and their replace- The 30-year-old King was “al- ment with four daily newspapers in ready aware of the power of the Khmer, French, Chinese and Western press to affect govern- Vietnamese languages put under mental opinion,” Osborne writes. the control of the Ministry of Information,” wrote the late Cover: A framed photo of retired King Norodom Sihanouk and And shortly after those interviews, Queen Monineath displayed in the Royal Palace France invited Norodom Siha- Charles Meyer in his 1971 book nouk’s representatives in Paris to “Derriere le sourire khmer,” or Top Right: In this 1967 television interview, Norodom Sihanouk “Behind the Khmer Smile.” alleges that China is trying to impose communism in Cambodia discuss independence. Photo: Courtesy of Cambodian Audiovisual Resource Center/French National Audiovisual Institute Over the years, media coverage Moreover, with the exception of would not always be so favorable, a few journalists known to print offi- Bottom Left: Norodom Sihanouk talks to journalists after a 1981 cial statements without comment, meeting with French diplomats in Paris about the difficulties of a and Norodom Sihanouk would peace settlement for Cambodia never take criticism lightly. Norodom Sihanouk closed Cam- Photo: Courtesy of Cambodian Audiovisual Resource Center/French National Audiovisual Institute In April, he threatened to sue bodia’s doors to the foreign press, Phnom Penh’s French-language Continued on page 14 OCTOBER 31, 2006 4 His Majesty’s Birthday The management and staff of Nagacorp & Ariston Sdn Bhd extend their best wishes for long life, good health and happiness to His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk on the occasion of His 84th Birthday Level 5, North Tower, Naga World, Hun Sen Park, Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia P.O. Box 1099, Phnom Penh. Tel: + 855-23-723986 Fax: + 855-23-426627 5 WATCHING BETWEEN THE FRAMES The Retired King’s Films May Be More Message Than Medium By Erika Kinetz “I think the King Father’s films are messages to filmmaking in the 1940s, and in 1966 made his And Kay Kimsong his beloved children and his people,” said Prince first feature film, “Apsara.” Sisowath Kola Chat, secretary of state for the “[Norodom] Sihanouk was having a discourse long, dreamy epoch of Technicolor peas- Ministry of Culture. “The films will be a useful of building an independent, proud nation,” said ants, Mercedes sedans, pastoral North documentary for the future.” Ly Daravuth. Part of that proud nation turned out AKorean lakes, and a beautiful queen came You Sokunthy, 35, who has been selling DVDs to be a cadre of filmmakers—Roeum Sophon to an end in late September: “My cinema, it is since 1992, has captured the niche market for the and Ieu Pannakar among them—who grew up dead,” retired King Norodom Sihanouk wrote in retired King’s films. She said she likes the films around Norodom Sihanouk, according to “Cul- a letter from Beijing that was posted on his Web because they are emanations of Khmer culture. tures of Independence,” a book on Cambodian site. “The dress and the action show the identity of the arts and culture published by Reyum. Norodom Sihanouk has, of course, said this Khmer people,” she said. Her grandmother loved “The culture was a tool for him,” said Ly before and he may well say it again. While the them. Daravuth. “There is always a link between art retired King’s filmmaking career, which spans “The old generation really liked the King’s and state ideology.” four decades, may or may not be dead, for the movies,” she said. “When they played on TV, they According to the Reyum book, the other major moment, the distribution of his films is. In that watched with their mouths open, without blink- school of Cambodian filmmakers at the time was same missive from Beijing, he asked state-run ing their eyes.” funded and trained by the US government, which TVK to stop broadcasting his films, a request the Tastes have changed.

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