Award-winning Cambodian journalist arrested: human rights groups

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An award-winning Cambodian journalist known for his reporting on human trafficking in the cyber fraud industry was arrested on Monday, according to an independent journalist network.

Mech Dara was awarded a Hero Award last year by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his investigations into the exploitation of online fraud centers in Cambodia, which recognizes anti-human trafficking efforts.

Authorities made the arrest after stopping a car that was taking Dara and his family from Sihanoukville – a coastal city where many suspected fraud operations take place – to Phnom Penh, the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA) said in a statement Explanation.

It said military police spokesman Eng Hy confirmed the arrest without revealing the charges or Dara's current whereabouts.

Dara, whose work has appeared in various international news outlets, sent a message about his arrest to LICADHO, a human rights NGO, shortly before his phone was confiscated by military police.

“We knew he was arrested, but we don't know where he was taken or why he was arrested,” Am Sam Ath, head of operations at LICADHO, told AFP.

Cambodian authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.

According to CamboJA, a day before his arrest, Dara had posted an image on his social media platforms that purportedly showed a tourist attraction being demolished to make way for a quarry.

Local authorities described the now-deleted images as “fake news” and demanded that Dara be punished for publishing them.

Dara previously worked for independent media outlet Voice of Democracy before Cambodian authorities shut it down in February last year.

Since then, he has used his social media platforms to share news content, particularly about the proliferation of notorious “fraud farms” – criminal operations that defraud victims of huge sums of money online, fueling human trafficking across the region.

Cambodia is almost at the bottom of the international press freedom rankings because the regime in power since 1979 cracks down on dissidents.

In 2017, independent newspaper The Cambodia Daily closed due to a tax dispute, while numerous other newspapers closed ahead of elections the following year.

Earlier this month, the United States imposed sanctions on a business tycoon and adviser to former Prime Minister Hun Sen over alleged abuses related to cyber fraud trafficking, a decision Cambodia described as politically motivated.

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