Award-winning Cambodian reporter leaves journalism after arrest

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A high-profile Cambodian reporter who won an international award for exposing alleged cyber scams told AFP on Tuesday that he is leaving journalism. He says he lost his “courage” after being arrested by authorities and released on bail.

Police arrested Mech Dara on September 30 on charges of incitement to social disorder, drawing condemnation from around the world.

Three weeks later, he was released on bail after apologizing in a video to former Cambodian leader Hun Sen and his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet, while in prison.

“I have decided that I will retire from journalism because of the arrest, interrogation and imprisonment,” Dara told AFP.

“I’m still scared,” he said, adding that authorities used excessive force during his arrest and then interrogated him all night.

“I have lost my courage. It has attacked my mind and I have no courage anymore,” Dara said, referring to the arrest and the time he spent in jail.

He also urged the court to drop the charges against him.

Hun Manet posted photos of him meeting Dara on Monday, including a photo of the couple embracing.

Dara said he informed Hun Manet of his decision to leave journalism during the meeting, which took place a day after his release.

Police arrested Dara, 36, after stopping a car carrying him and his family from Sihanoukville, a coastal city where many suspected cyber scam operations take place.

His reporting has appeared in several international news media and he worked for the independent Voice of Democracy in Cambodia before authorities shut it down in February 2023.

Dara has since used his social media platforms to share news content, particularly on the spread of ‘scam farms’: criminal operations that defraud victims of large sums of money online and fuel human trafficking across the region.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year presented Dara with a Hero Award in recognition of anti-trafficking efforts for investigations into exploitation at the online scam sites.

The award praised his “courageous reporting on human trafficking for coercive crime”, saying this had led to the government improving its response to the problem.

His arrest came a day after he posted an image on social media showing a tourist site being demolished to make way for a quarry, the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association said.

Local authorities labeled the now-deleted images as “fake news” and called on Dara to be punished for publishing them.

After announcing the charges against Dara, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court accused him of posting messages on social media platforms intended to “incite anger (and) make people misunderstand the leadership of the Cambodian government”.

Cambodian authorities frequently use the charge of sedition against activists, and Dara could face up to two years in prison if convicted.

Cambodia ranks bottom in international press freedom rankings and rights groups have long accused the government of using legal cases as a tool to silence dissenting voices.