CAMBODIA Mech Dara, free voice in Phnom Penh, also detained

The best-known of the Cambodian independent journalists who continue working despite the repression has been arrested. The probable pretext was the posts published on social networks about the environmental damage caused by some stone quarries, labeled by the authorities as news that created “social unrest.” But Dara is also very active in exposing the slaves of cross-border online scams. With him, there are now one hundred political prisoners in Cambodia.

Phnom Penh () – On September 30, Mech Dara, the best-known of Cambodian independent journalists who continue to work despite the repression of information, was arrested while traveling with members of his family, and taken to an unknown location . The arrest was confirmed by the Alliance Association of Cambodian Journalists, citing a military police spokesman who, however, did not indicate what charges he was accused of or where he had been taken.

At the time of his arrest and before his phone was confiscated, Mech Dara himself sent a message to the Cambodian NGO Licadho (Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights). Several sources indicate that the measure may have been motivated by his recent Facebook posts about the environmental damage caused by the stone quarries, which the authorities had yesterday criticized as being aimed at causing “social unrest.”

In Cambodia, misleading accusations have long been the means of silencing the media, using specially created or modified legal instruments. For many years, pressure exerted on Cambodian authorities by diplomats and groups or organizations for the protection of human rights and freedom of information has fallen on deaf ears. This has made Cambodia rank 151 out of 180 countries in the International Press Freedom Index published annually by Reporters Without Borders.

There are currently more than a hundred political prisoners in Cambodian prisons, including former parliamentary opposition leader Kem Sokha and a dozen environmental activists who were sentenced last year to six to eight years for conspiring against the government after denouncing environmental damage.

Precisely because of his notoriety, a reaction campaign to Dara’s arrest and imprisonment has been underway since yesterday: the Phnom Penh government is asked to guarantee the transparency of the process against him and a fair trial.

The journalist previously worked at the Cambodia Daily and Phnom Penh Post newspapers, which were silenced by the authorities, before joining the Voice of Democracy, which was also forced to cease publication last year. Their commitment, however, not only refers to an internal reality that is difficult to communicate without taking great risks, but also to the phenomenon of cross-border initiatives that have strong roots in Cambodia and force thousands of people into virtual slavery to work in the networks that manage online crime.

Precisely for this courageous commitment, in contrast to the authorities who minimize the phenomenon for fear of alienating investors, last year the journalist was awarded the Hero of Human Trafficking award from the United States Department of State.