Cambodia's information minister said Wednesday that televised images of Buddhist monks watching artistic performances are hurting the religion's image, and he has ordered stations to stop airing them.
The order, which applies to television stations throughout the heavily Buddhist country, was issued Monday, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said.
The minister said that "for some time" there have been arts performances aired "with the participation of the monks and this is against Buddhist rules" because monks aren't allowed to attend or watch television, movies or artistic displays.
The ban doesn't cover other programs, such as news roundtables.
Although only a few monks were acting badly, "this can tarnish the image of all Buddhism in Cambodia," he said.
Khieu Kanharith said he decided to act after seeing monks attending a televised artistic exhibition in January.
"I saw that, I said, 'Oh my god,'" he said. "You have some monks who aren't really monks or maybe they are too lazy to study their monastic rules."
When asked what the penalty was for stations that broke the ban, Khieu Kanharith said: "Nobody will break it ... this is an obligation for everybody."
Ninety percent of Cambodia's 13 million people are Buddhist. There are about 60,000 monks living in more than 4,000 temples across the country.
Several monks grabbed newspaper headlines last year for fighting with slingshots and petrol bombs at a temple, molesting a boy, and for beating a man and stealing motorcycles.
The Information Ministry order comes on the heels of a ban it issued in mid-December on broadcasts of a pop song about a Buddhist monk falling in love titled "Wrongly Quitting Monkhood for Love."