AKP Phnom Penh, March 01, 2025 --

Cambodia’s Ministry of Information is set to launch a nationwide campaign in March, calling on the public to “Say No to Fake News” to ramp up efforts in combatting fake news, Undersecretary of State and Spokesperson of the Ministry H.E. Tep Asnarith told AKP on Feb. 28.

He encouraged everyone to participate in the campaign and its activities that will throughout the implementation engage country’s social media users and all stakeholders in the information and broadcast sector.

“A good digital citizen is the one who is fully aware of the consequences of fake news and actively participates in combating fake news,” he told AKP.

H.E. Tep Asnarith said the dangers of fake news are acute in the context of technological developments and the growth of modern media, which Cambodia is adapting at a rapid pace, while the influence of digital society and the use of social media have increased.

The spokesperson emphasised that in 2024, Cambodia had a total of more than 12 million active users on social media, equivalent to approximately 68 percent of the total population, therefore, we must all pay attention to the impact from this new trend of using and sharing information.

“It is more important now than ever that we need to work together to prevent the spread of fake news, focusing on appropriate response mechanisms and fostering collaborative schemes to diversify approaches, including raising public awareness and developing educational campaigns, setting goals for media and information literacy, and so on. These are all necessary tasks that require all stakeholders, including social media users in particular, to participate in combating fake news,” he said.

Regarding to the consequences of fake news, the spokesperson said all types of fake news have a negative impact on security, social order, economy and politics. Fake news can cause instability, create violence, cause social hostility and disintegration, affecting public trust in leaderships, creating chaos.

In addition, fake news can cause consequences that can lead to unimaginable impact and disaster, putting public interests and the entire society in jeopardy, he underlined.

To combat fake news, the Ministry of Information is going to launch a national campaign “Say No to Fake News” in March.

H.E. Tep Asnarith said this is a public campaign that the Ministry of Information will lead on with focus on changing the behavior of users of social media and modern information platforms in the effort to promote digital safety and prevent the spread of fake news in Cambodian society.

In this sense, all digital users, especially those are active on social media, are an important player to participate. The campaign will become an important mechanism that will contribute to minimising fake news and ultimately eliminating all types of fake news from the information space in Cambodian society. These efforts will contribute information security, ensuring public access to quality and safe information online for all citizens throughout the country.

The Anti-Fake News Committee of the Ministry of Information, in 2024, recorded a total of 3,651 cases of fake news, - an increase of nearly 14 percent compared to records in 2023.

By Heng Panha