Kingly blogger
p2pnet.net News:- “It says so in the papers so it must be true” is often an ironic comment used to imply the exact opposite.
However, that was then and this is now and blogging has given people from commoners to kings a way to by-pass the mainstream press to provide their own unspun versions of events, as well as their views and opinion.
In January, 2004, we carried an item on Cambodia’s former king Norodom Sihanouk who was using his web page to publish his music, among other things.
And he’s still blogging strong.
” ‘I thank you for insulting me;’ Sihanouk responded to a critic of his support of gay marriage,” says an Associated Press story, going on:
“He didn’t share any of the insulting e-mails with his readers, but noted: ‘My country, Cambodia, has chosen to be a liberal democracy since 1993. Every Cambodian … including the King has the right to express freely their view’.”
Sihanouk is one of the world’s first serious bloggers and who’s been posting his opinions, historical documents and exchanges with diplomats or Cambodian politicians for three years or more.
“He abdicated in favor of his son Sihamoni last fall, and is in and out of the hospital, but the Internet keeps him in the public eye in a style that may be unique on the world stage,” says the story, adding:
“Sihanouk’s Web site, which incorporates his blog in French, Khmer or English, attracts about 1,000 visitors daily from around the world. After serving as king, president and prime minister at various times, he now calls himself ‘a senior citizen who hasn’t any official power,’ but his views remain relevant enough to be summarized in the Cambodian press for the benefit of the many Cambodians who are too poor to have access to the Internet.”
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
publish his music – The blog with a difference, p2pnet, January 11, 2004
Associated Press – Cambodia’s Ex-King Delights in Blogging , May 28, 2005
May 29th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
“‘My country, Cambodia, has chosen to be a liberal democracy since 1993. Every Cambodian … including the King has the right to express freely their view’.”
– maybe the US and Bush in particular could learn something from this….oh wait, it already says something similar in the constitution which they have ridden roughshod over recently, oh well….I guess Cambodia could displace the US as the beacon for democracy on the world’s poilitical stage…I’d day Canda could, but we’re now considered a banana republic by most.
TT