In response to the stale content, as Fresh News initiators defined it, published by the official news agency of Cambodia, AKP, the news portal Fresh News was launched in 2012, first only as a Facebook page. It was later developed into a fully fledged news portal with a mission to repurpose government-endorsed content in a more attractive design and presentation.
Media assets
News portal: Fresh News
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Private (CaPr)
Ownership and governance
The management at Fresh News is not officially appointed by the government. A group of young professionals working in IT claims to own the portal.
Source of funding and budget
Fresh News’ owner and CEO Lim Chea Vutha said in 2018 that Fresh News doesn’t receive funding from the Chinese government. He added that the portal operates independently of the Cambodian government. Thanks to its viral content, the portal funds itself mostly through advertising revenues (the portal brims with ads that make it difficult even to follow its content).
Editorial independence
Fresh News is a rare example of a media outlet that seems to be financially self-sufficient and organizationally independent of the government, which, yet, has its editorial strategy fully controlled by authorities. The portal’s CEO openly shows his support for the government in exchange for unlimited access to government sources and information. That, in turn, helps the portal boost its audience and funding.
The compromises that Fresh News agrees with are so large that the portal regularly accepts government orders when it comes to what is and what is not to be published. In many cases, Fresh News has, in fact, helped the government reinforce its viewpoint or spread misinformation about its adversaries, prompting some observers to refer to Fresh News as a fake news factory. In recent media reports, the portal is referred to as “government-aligned.”
In one of the latest developments, Fresh News published details from a phone conversation between a top official from a political party in opposition and a woman who was described as being his mistress.
No evidence of statutes that would protect the independence of the journalists working for Fresh News has been identified. Also, there is no independent assessment or oversight mechanism to validate the editorial independence of Fresh News.
September 2023