Award-winning Cambodian journalist Mech Dara has been arrested, human rights groups say | Cambodia

An award-winning Cambodian journalist known for his reporting on human trafficking in the cyber fraud industry was arrested on Monday, according to the independent Cambodia Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA).

Mech Dara won a Hero Award last year for his investigation into the exploitation of online fraud centers in Cambodia. The award, which recognizes efforts to combat human trafficking, was presented by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

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, CamboJA said in a statement.

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,” Licadho operations manager Am Sam Ath 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 at the bottom of the international press freedom rankings. The regime, which has ruled since 1979, takes tough action against 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.