Award-winning Cambodian journalist arrested for 'incitement to cause chaos'

By AFP/Suy Se

An award-winning Cambodian journalist known for reporting on human trafficking in the cyber scam industry has been arrested on charges of inciting social disorder, officials said on Tuesday.

Mech Dara was presented last year with a Hero Award, which recognises efforts against human trafficking, by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for investigations into exploitation at online scam compounds in Cambodia.

Authorities made the arrest on Monday after stopping a car carrying Dara and his family from Sihanoukville, a coastal city where many suspected scam operations take place, to Phnom Penh, the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA) said in a statement.

Police confirmed the arrest and Y Rin, a spokesman at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, told AFP that an investigating judge had decided to detain Dara on charges of "incitement to cause serious chaos to social order".

The court accused Dara in a statement of posting "many incitement messages... to ignite anger to make people misunderstand about the leadership of the Cambodian government".

Dara posted the messages on his social media platforms including Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, X, and Signal, the statement said.

"The accused has bad intentions to cause serious chaos to social order," the statement said, adding that Dara "confessed and admitted that he committed as charged" during questioning.

The charge of incitement is frequently used by Cambodian authorities against activists and Dara could face up to two years in jail if convicted.

A group of nearly 50 civil, human rights and media organisations issued a joint statement urging the government to free Dara and drop the charges.

Rights clampdown

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

LICADHO's operations director said Dara had been sent to a prison in Kandal province, near Phnom Penh.

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

Local authorities labelled the now-deleted images "fake news" and called for Dara to face punishment for their publication.

Dara worked for the independent media outlet Voice of Democracy before Cambodian authorities shut it down in February 2023.

He has since used his social media platforms to share news content, particularly around the proliferation of "scam farms" -- criminal operations that defraud victims online for vast sums of money and fuel human trafficking across the region.

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

Independent newspaper The Cambodia Daily closed in 2017 over a tax dispute, while scores of other outlets closed the following year ahead of elections.

The United States imposed sanctions last month against a business tycoon and adviser to former prime minister Hun Sen for alleged abuses related to cyber scam trafficking, a decision Cambodia slammed as politically motivated.