Cambodia: RSF appalled by detention of award-winning journalist Mech Dara
Cambodian independent journalist Mech Dara, known for his reporting on human trafficking, was recently arrested by military police. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Cambodian authorities to release him immediately and to end their policy of systematically persecuting reporters.
On 1 October 2024, award-winning journalist Mech Dara was brought to the municipal court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, for questioning in a case of “incitement to disturb social security” a crime punishable by a two-year prison sentence. He had been arrested the day before by military police in the southwest of the country while travelling with his family.
Just before his arrest, Mech Dara had posted photos on social media – which have since been deleted – of the destruction of the entry to a religious site in the southeast of the country. The local administration responded with a statement accusing him of “incitement to disturb social security” and called on the government to take legal action against him.
“Independent journalist Mech Dara was likely arrested due to an abusive legal complaint from the provincial administration for simply doing his job of reporting information of public interest. We call on the Cambodian government to ensure that he is immediately released.
Mech Dara is a seasoned journalist known for his investigations into human rights abuses in Cambodia. In 2023, he was named a Trafficking in Persons Report Hero by the US State Department for his coverage of online scam operations in Cambodia. In 2022, he was briefly detained by Cambodian immigration officers for around two hours while he was in the south of the country reporting on the rescue of Vietnamese nationals from a suspected scam compound.
Mech Dara has worked for several independent Cambodian newspapers that were repressed by former Prime Minister Hun Sen for publishing negative information about the authorities, including Cambodia Daily, which was forced to close in 2017 due to government pressure, and Voice of Democracy, which had its licence revoked by the government in February 2023.
One year into his rule, Prime Minister Hun Manet appears to be continuing the media crackdown started by his father, Hun Sen. According to a recent CamboJA report, cases of legal harassment against journalists — particularly those covering environmental issues — are on the rise in Cambodia.
Having fallen nine places in two years, Cambodia is now ranked 151st out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index, placing it in the category of nations where threats to press freedom are deemed “very serious”.
