The 36-year-old journalist, who had documented online scam centers in Sihanoukville, was arrested at the end of September, but after three weeks he was released on bail, thanks to a video in which he apologizes to the former prime minister. Hun Sen and his son, the current Prime Minister Hun Manet. He explained that the arrest and threats from the police had sapped his spirit.
Phnom Penh (/Agencies) – Mech Dara, a 36-year-old Cambodian journalist arrested at the end of September for reporting on the proliferation of scam centers in his country, announced that he is retiring from journalism. He had been arrested on September 30, accused of inciting social unrest, and was released three weeks later thanks to international pressure and the dissemination of a video in which he apologized to the former leader of Cambodia, Hun Sen, and his son. , the current Prime Minister Hun Manet.
“I have decided to retire from journalism due to the arrest, interrogation and jail,” the journalist told the Agence France Presse. “I’m still scared,” he added. Mech Dara claimed that he had been interrogated and threatened by the police. “This has sapped my spirit and I no longer have courage,” Dara said, referring to the arrest and time he spent in prison. “The interrogation and then the prison really destroyed my soul.” Dara later said he had asked the court to drop the charges against him.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Manet published some photographs showing him and Dara, and even another in which they hug. Dara said he communicated his decision to the prime minister during a meeting shortly after being released.
Police stopped Dara as he was leaving in a car with his family from the city of Sihanoukville, known for numerous illegal hubs dedicated to online scams. According to the Association of Cambodian Journalists, the arrest was due to the publication of an image showing the alleged demolition of a tourist site to make way for a quarry. Local authorities claim this is “fake news,” and the Phnom Penh municipal court accused Dara of “provoking anger and causing people to misunderstand the decisions of the Cambodian government,” a phrase often used to repress to activists and dissident voices. Dara could receive up to two years in prison if convicted.
Dara previously worked for Voice of Democracy, an independent station that was closed by the authorities in February 2023. Since then, the journalist has used his social networks to document criminal operations in online scam centers and some of his reports have appeared in international media. In 2023, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken awarded Dara a “Hero Award” for his research on human trafficking.
The organization Reporters Without Borders said Dara’s abandonment “will leave a void in Cambodia’s journalistic landscape. With the repression of journalists like Mech Dara, the Cambodian government has sent a disturbing message and directly threatens the few independent journalists left in the country,” declared Aleksandra Bielakowska of RSF to AFP.
Beh Lih Yi, Asia program coordinator at the Commission to Protect Journalists (CPJ), also called the story “alarming”: “Cambodia’s vital free press is a shadow of its former self, after almost four decades of authoritarian rule by Hun Sen. Prime Minister Hun Manet is no different from his father,” he told the AFP.
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