PHNOM PENH — Cambodia has ramped up its diplomatic standoff with Thailand, banning all Thai films and television shows and cutting cross-border internet links in retaliation for escalating tensions over a disputed border zone.

 

The ban, announced Friday, follows a deadly skirmish on 28 May in a contested “no man's land” along the border, where a Cambodian soldier was killed. Both sides blamed each other. Now, what began as a brief armed clash has spiralled into a full-blown political tit-for-tat.

 

Cambodia’s Ministry of Fine Arts ordered all Thai movies and TV programmes off-air, impacting everything from soap operas to cinema imports. Meanwhile, telecommunications operators were instructed to reroute all international internet traffic to bypass Thailand — a move officials claim could cost Bangkok hundreds of millions in lost revenue.

 

“The government will act pre-emptively to ensure national self-reliance,” Prime Minister Hun Manet said, responding to Thai nationalist calls to sever electricity and internet ties with Cambodia.

 

Thai authorities, for their part, imposed tighter border controls and denied that any service disruptions were politically motivated, pointing instead to efforts to tackle online scam operations in Poipet.

 

Friday’s measures came just one day ahead of a long-scheduled meeting between the two nations’ joint border commission in Phnom Penh — an attempt to resolve ongoing disputes tied to the 1962 International Court of Justice ruling that handed sovereignty of the Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia, a decision Thailand has long struggled to accept.

 

Though both sides have since softened public rhetoric — avoiding terms like “withdrawal” in favour of “adjusted deployments” — tensions remain high, fuelled by mutual suspicion, nationalist pressure, and a long, bitter history.

 

As Thai dramas disappear from Cambodian screens and fibre-optic cables are re-routed, the region is once again reminded how fragile peace can be when politics plays out along an uncertain border.

 

-2025-06-14

Cambodian TV must be really , really , really bad if they're watching Thai TV over there.

 

2 hours ago, FlorC said:

Cambodian TV must be really , really , really bad if they're watching Thai TV over there.

 

Still probably better than the UK's Eastenders...

Cambodian ministry of fine arts are not so busy these days by the look of it🤔

 

4 hours ago, FlorC said:

Cambodian TV must be really , really , really bad if they're watching Thai TV over there.

 

 

With respect, Cambodian TV does not screen local soaps and many Khmer people are hooked on the Thai produced ones with all the screeching, high drama and poor acting.

2 hours ago, Watawattana said:

Still probably better than the UK's Eastenders...

 

As a UK citizen, I can honestly say I have never watched one episode of Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm. 

IMO a load of rubbish. What viewers do not realise, the characters are only actors performing in front of cameras!  They think they are real persons.

41 minutes ago, Burma Bill said:

 

As a UK citizen, I can honestly say I have never watched one episode of Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm. 

IMO a load of rubbish. What viewers do not realise, the characters are only actors performing in front of cameras!  They think they are real persons.

Ha!  

 

I was 'forced' to watch Coronation Street as a child - no choice, mother wanted to watch, and I was too young to run away to my room.  As soon as I could I ditched watching.  I can just about remember Elsie Tanner, Albert Tatlock (there was a good punk song about him, think it was by The Skids).

 

Eastenders?  I watched a few episodes just to see what the hype was about and found it so, so very depressing - in fact I think the psyche in that series pervaded UK culture, meaning that the UK's mood got pulled down by Eastenders.  Brits are a much more miserable bunch than they were before Eastenders; might be coincidence of course.

 

Emmerdale?  My grandmother watched, but I don't remember watching any more than a few minutes, finding it intensely boring.

 

Your point about actors v real people is spot on; how many baddies in films and series get 💩 in real life because of their characters, and how many people are disappointed by the 💩 behaviour of the heros/heroines?

1 hour ago, Burma Bill said:

 

With respect, Cambodian TV does not screen local soaps and many Khmer people are hooked on the Thai produced ones with all the screeching, high drama and poor acting.

You nailed it :

screeching, high drama and poor acting