Lao Voices

When I read “Care Package for the New Year” at Darly’s Blog, I saw that she received Sayo Laos magazine, which I saw that they ran their ad in Koosang Koosom Thai magazine in the past issues, and there was an interview of the owner of Sayo Laos on the December 2007 issue. The article was written in Thai language, and I’ll be translating part of it so we will have some good ideas as to what goes behind this magazine, and the current project that she is working on.

Ardina Mahavong is the modern Lao woman, with high self-confident that is living in the digital world. She is a working “Laos” woman that’s juggling between import and export, magazine and television. She was born and raised in Vientiane, Laos, and is of mixed Lao-Pakistan descent, growing up in the modern society of Lao Muslim. Koosang Koosom interviewed her in Vientiane.

Question: What type of business are you currently doing?

Currently, I’m working on “Sayo Laos,” it is a monthly magazine issues, we publish 16,000 magazines per issue, and I also run a factory clothing apparel in Vientiane that we do import and export. I’m currently working with the Lao government on setting up Lao movie television, it will be a free TV, creating something such as this is a dream of mine. I want the world to know where Laos is, which we will stress tourism, health issues, and the beauty that Laos has to offer.

Question: How many channels does Lao television currently have?

We currently have 1 channel, and we also have satellite TV. The current one that we’re working on is going to be called MV (abbreviation from Movie Lao Television,) which the major source of income will come from sponsors, mainly commercials.

Question: Is there any magazine in Laos that is currently competing with Sayo Laos magazine?

I started doing Sayo Laos in 2004, and at that time there were very few magazines, the government allow us to write according to the best interest of the country but we have to send in our issue before each publication for approval, as far as them checking the contents, this we do not know, I guess it’s up to the individual that’s doing it. But to write in the style of attacking them is probably not good, we have our code of ethics that we go by, using the actual event as the core, the truth, the promotion of our culture that the government support, and we’re protected under the law, but not totally restricted in what we can write.

Question: Like Koosang Koosom magazine, we can publish without getting an approval, there is no government official that would come and review our magazine.

We can also do this, every publishing company in Laos can do this, that they don’t have to be inspected, or come and arrest us when we write, but there is a censorship there where we have to meet the requirement. As for us, we don’t have to wait because the government fully support in what we’re doing. There is no restriction because time is money, and we always have to race with time but we have to make sure that the magazine comes out good and not writing to attack anyone.

To be continued, second part of the interview will cover the making of Lao Television.