Ka-set is a news website about Cambodia and Cambodians in the world. Its goal is to promote quality journalism, within respect of the rules of ethics and deontology. The team work professionally and independently from any pressure groups, whether they be political or economical.

The Ka-set team intend to gather together around the website a community of informants made of professional journalists, experts, observers and internet users who are all concerned with offering a new and independent perspective on any subject that is directly or indirectly related to Cambodia.

This project, carried out by four Cambodian, Belgian and French journalists, was elaborated at the beginning of November 2007. Several members of Ka-set have a background within the team of a former daily newspaper, Cambodge Soir. Eager to continue to defend the values of integrity and editorial freedom, the team decided to switch over to the internet and make the most of the new opportunities offered by this medium.

Keeping the idea of openness, the sharing of information and the community of values in mind, the Ka-set media company provides news for free, in Khmer, French and English. For the time being, the company's sources of income are exclusively linked with the advertising partners showing up on the website and contributions from members and readers.
You can support this project by subscribing to the services provided by Ka-set or by simply helping us spread the word about the website ka-set.info.

- "Ka-set" - the choice of a name
- From Khmer7 to Ka-set, how the logo came about
- A private initiative and a network of professionals
- Values proclaimed in a charter
- Management transparency
- The company Ka-set and the association Khmer7
- The founders
- The full organisation chart
- Legal notices
- Acknowledgements

The denomination of “Ka-set” was chosen for a simple reason: “Ka-set” means “newspaper” in Khmer. Ka-set is first and foremost a newspaper designed by journalists. It is also a term derived from the French word “gazette”, which was the title of the first French newspaper created by  Théophraste Renaudot in 1631. Modes of information have nonetheless made significant progress since then... “Ka-set”, as a Cambodian digital gazette, also intends to promote professional journalism as well as the use of the internet as a new way of providing journalistic information in Cambodia.

The Ka-set logo represents the number 7 juxtaposed with the letter K, which in French is pronounced as 'Ka-sept'. This logo, designed by Steve Coleman, refers to the project at its beginnings. The idea of creating a website originated late July 2007 from the talks between seven journalists. In order to support this initiative, the association Khmer7 is in the process of being formed in France.

As a private media company, Ka-set now employs eleven people: five journalists, among whom the four who founded the project (3 editors and a photoreporter), two reporters, three translators and a webmaster. Around this core revolve several freelance journalists and occasional contributors.

From the very genesis of the project, Ka-set benefited from the helping hand of many volunteers who all showed expertise in their own field. Indeed, the voluntary participation of people coming from as many various origins as geographical situations – Cambodians, French, Khmer-French, English, Belgian, New-Zealander, American... –  resulted in the setting up of the first version of the website.
Ka-set also relies on university networks via partnerships made, among others, with the Master's degree in Project Management initiated by the Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh (RULE) and the French universities of Lyons II and Lille I, the Department of Media and Communication, and students from the Department of French Studies at the Institute of Foreign Languages (both of which are affiliated to the Royal University of Phnom Penh).

Last but not least, the Ka-set team work in partnership with several companies and organisations, like the independent website Rue 89 and the Audiovisual Resource Centre Bophana.

Ka-set has drafted a charter of values and principles that all employees, contributors and partners must commit to respect. This text stresses, among other things, the responsibilities and duties of the journalists, the strict separation between the editorial and administrative/commercial departments, and the fundamental rules of deontology. The integral text of the charter is available on the Ka-set website in French , Khmer and English .

Ka-set commits to publicise its accounts on a yearly basis, for the sake of clarity towards its members and readership. The team also commit to answer any question about the way the media company works, its editorial policy and the funding it benefits from.

Besides the founding of the Ka-set media company, which was granted a licence by the Ministry of Information of the Royal Government of Cambodia (Authorisation Number 228 ព.ម dated February 19th 2008), a French association, Khmer7, should soon be created in France. Beyond the Ka-set project, its goal is to offer support to any initiative aiming at promoting ethical and professional journalism in Cambodia and at facilitating the access to information to an audience as large as possible.

Duong Sokha is a former journalist-editor at the French-Khmer bilingual daily newspaper Cambodge Soir, where he worked from 2003 to 2007. He studied journalism for two years at the Department of French Studies at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and obtained a degree in French and the Certificates of proficiency in journalism and translation professions. He was born in Phnom Penh in 1981 and began his career in 2002 as a radio programme-presenter, to continue later as a reporter for a television programme.

Duong Sokha and Chheang Bopha, also a journalist at Ka-set, both received the 2008 Hellman-Hammett Grants administered by the international organisation Human Rights Watch. For more information on the grant, please read the press release published on the Human Rights Watch website .

Stéphanie Gée was born in 1973 in France and obtained diplomas at the Institut Français de Presse (IFP) and at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Grenoble. She set foot in Cambodia in 1999 after a short expatriation in England and took up the position of editor-in-chief at the former French language daily newspaper Cambodge Soir. She has been the official foreign correspondent in Cambodia for Radio France Internationale since 2003.

Born in 1978 in France, Laurent Le Gouanvic studied journalism at the Institut Français de Presse after obtaining a diploma at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Aix-en-Provence. He worked on several occasions in Laos - in 1998 and in 2001- for a French language newspaper and as an occasional correspondent for the Agence France Presse (AFP). He returned to France in 2004 and was awarded the Alexandre Varenne Prize for young journalists. He has been living in Cambodia since September 2005 and first worked at the former daily newspaper Cambodge Soir where he was in charge of the online version of the publication.

John Vink was born in Belgium in 1948. He started studying photography at La Cambre University of Fine Arts in 1968 and became an independent photographer in 1971. He joined the VU Agency in 1986 and received the Eugene Smith award for his work on water management in Sahel. Between 1987 and 1993, he worked on Refugees in the World, which became the subject of an exhibit at the Centre National de la Photographie in Paris. In 1993, he became a nominee at Magnum Photos, and a full member in 1997. Since 2000, he has been based in Cambodia, a country he started visiting in 1989. His publications include 'Réfugiés', 'Avoir 20 ans à Phnom Penh', 'Peuples d'en haut' and 'Poids Mouche'.

Editorial team
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An Sopheak, translator (KH/FR)
Callebaut Corinne, editor (FR/EN)
Chheang Bopha, reporter (KH/FR/EN)
Duong Sokha, editor (co-founder) (KH/FR)
Ellul Veronique, translator (FR/EN)
Gée Stephanie, editor (co-founder) (FR/EN)
Lach Ratana, translator (KH/FR)
Le Gouanvic Laurent, editor (co-founder) (FR/EN)
Lee Ji-Sook, translator (EN/FR)
Ros Dina, reporter (KH/FR)
Vink John, photoreporter (co-founder) (FR/EN/NL/DE/IT/SP)

Commercial and administrative department
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+855 (0)17 473 977 (Mob.) / +855 (0)23 213 453 (Fax)

Technical department
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An Souphorn, webmaster (KH/EN)

The first version of the Ka-set website was entirely designed by a  team of volunteers, living in different locations - Phnom Penh, Paris and London - and with free software (CMS Open Source Joomla licence GNU/GPL).

If you wish to contact a particular correspondent, please use the following pattern:

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We also invite you to take into account the languages spoken or written by your correspondent. They are provided in the list of Ka-set members using the following codes: KH (Khmer), FR (French), EN (English), CN (Chinese), DE (German), NL (Dutch), IT (Italian), SP (Spanish).

Ka-set is a media company registered at the Ministry of Information. It was granted the , dated February 19th, 2008.

The head office of the company is located at 19E1, Street 318, Sangkat Tuol Svay Prey, Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.

The newspaper editor is Duong Sokha. The editor-in-chief is Stéphanie Gée. John Vink and Laurent Le Gouanvic are the company's co-directors.

Ka-set would not exist without the team of anonymous and voluntary developers who set this website up and supported the project right from the start. Thanks also to Steve Coleman for the design of the Ka-set logo; Christine Chaumeau, Maud Lhuillier, Vanessa Ly, Vincent Boyet for their help from France; the dynamic team working for the NGO Internews on a programme about AIDS and the Media in Cambodia; Arnaud Dubus, a Thailand-based correspondent journalist for Radio France Internationale (RFI) and the French newspaper Libération; Bé Puch, freelance translator; Chhoy Bunchheang, computer technician at the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre; Catherine Vermès; and all of those who encouraged and still support the project today, from Cambodia and all over the world.