Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said the ministry will permanently close any radio station that interferes with aircraft frequencies. Hean Rangsey
Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said on Monday the ministry will permanently close any radio station that interferes with aircraft frequencies.
The minister said this at a signing ceremony of a joint statement on “Measures to Prevent and Eliminate Interference to Aircraft Radio”.
Three ministries are involved – the ministries of Posts and Telecommunications; Information, and the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation.
“The radio stations have to fix their radio frequencies. If they still cause problems, we will close the stations permanently. The important point is the owners of radio stations have to change or repair their tools to prevent airspace interference in Cambodia,” said Kanharith.
He said in some cases, a radio station has only one antenna. The owner then rents it to three or more radio stations nearby and that can cause problems with aircraft radio frequencies.
“If they do not follow the advice, we will close their radio stations. We have closed some stations already. For instance, we suspended radio 107 until it changed the broadcast tool to prevent the same problem.
“It is now allowed to operate again. We also closed radio 102.3 in Siem Reap province. This station rented its antenna to other stations which interfered with the aircraft frequency,” he said.
State Secretariat of Civil Aviation Minister Mao Havannall said the evolution of radio and television equipment means a lot of airwaves have signals close together, resulting in transmission between civil aviation radio waves and radio station waves.
“Pilots will always follow the order of a terrestrial controller. If a pilot cannot receive information from the terrestrial controller, it becomes a safety issue,” he said.
Cambodian Journalists Association (Cambo-JA) executive-director Nop Vy said in his experience of working in radio stations, many technical issues require oversight, but he urged transparency.
“I support signing on to conduct technical work with these institutions, but I encourage officials to do their jobs transparently. There are a lot of bad officials in our society who will use this opportunity for self-interest,” he said.
