Transparency
No national law (media, company, tax) contains transparency and disclosure provisions binding media companies to report (changes in) ownership structures to public authorities, nor to disclose them to the public.
- Lists of license holders for TV and print sectors were accessible upon request at the Ministry of Information. A list of radio license holders was only available for stations in Phnom Penh. This register, however, does not include reliable and accurate information on the media ownership structure but only on the registered license holder. Consequently, the public cannot easily learn which legal or natural person effectively owns or controls a media company- since it is not even questionable that the government is informed about details.
- Lists of license holders for ISP and mobile companies are available online. More information can be obtained upon request at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.
Media and telecommunications companies and owners are not transparent on their own motion:
there is no active disclosure of ownership structure; economic data such as turn-over/ revenue are held confidential. This impeded to rank the Media Companies according to their economic power/ stability at this stage of the project.
Since ownership transparency regulations are lacking, law doesn’t enforce the disclosure of ownership structures of large media companies, which provides grounds for market abuse and concentration.