MINISTER of Information Khieu Kanharith said yesterday that he would support local Khmer Krom activists in establishing media outlets to publicise their community’s interests, so long as these efforts did not damage the Kingdom’s relationship with Vietnam.

Khieu Kanharith met yesterday with Thach Sang, president of the Cambodia-based Khmer Kampuchea Krom Friendship Association.

The minister said he would support funding to allow the group to publish a magazine and receive one hour of free airtime per day on state radio stations in Takeo and Svay Rieng provinces. He added, however, that the government opposed activities that “draw objections from the Vietnamese government or argue for the liberation of Khmer Krom land from Vietnam”.

At a meeting in Phnom Penh last month, Vietnamese Vice Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang praised the cooperation of Cambodian authorities in halting anti-Vietnamese “plots”.

This cooperation, Tran said, had prevented Khmer Krom activists from “hiring state and private radio broadcasting with the aim of propagandising against the traditional relationship and the alliance of the two countries”.