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SMS Banned During Cambodian Election The power of SMS is certainly becoming more and more apparent. The recent move by Cambodia’s National Election Committee certainly serves to demonstrate just how much SMS has become a part of the culture and lifestyle of people worldwide. During its latest election, the National Election Committee physically shut down all SMS facilities in order to immobilize SMS messages during the entire weekend leading up to the Monday election. The reason behind the shut down was really quite simple – Cambodian law states that the two days prior to the election must be quite and free of political statements and turmoil. Since mobile devices have become a common method for spreading political campaigns, the Committee felt it was best to shut down the devices completely rather than try to police what is being sent. Cambodian law restricts political campaigning during the two days prior to the election in order to minimize the violence the country has experienced in the past during election time. During the months leading to its 1998 and 2003 elections, for example, literally hundreds of people were killed. The reasoning behind the shut down has done little to ease the outrage of election monitors as well as human rights groups. “It is unreasonable to ban SMS during the election. I’ve never heard of this before,” said Koul Panha, a representative of Comfrell, an election watchdog. “SMS is not related to elections.” The National Election Committee doesn’t agree. As such, they surprised phone operators when they told them at the last minute that they were to implement the ban. In a strange twist, the notification of the ban was sent to most of the 1.6 million mobile device users in Cambodia – which accounts for about 11% of the population – via SMS. The Messaging Centre offers everything you need to setup a browser-based SMS messaging facility. Take a FREE NO OBLIGATION TRIAL NOW. Also please feel free to look at more useful information about SMS. Enjoying Premium Rated SMS Messages |
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