Bangkok — Cambodia this week has seen an outpouring of support from journalists, media groups and embassies for Mech Dara, one of the country’s last remaining independent journalists, who recently was taken into custody and charged with incitement.
The U.S. Embassy in Cambodia posted on social media platform X that it was deeply troubled by Monday’s arrest and called for Dara’s release.
“He is a leading voice against human trafficking & online scams,” the embassy posted on X, noting that he was presented with an award by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year for his work to combat human trafficking.
Describing Dara as an advocate for the freedom of expression that is guaranteed in Cambodia’s constitution, the embassy added, “We encourage authorities to engage [with] diverse voices & foster a free, independent press.”
Cambodian-state media confirmed that Dara, 36, was charged with incitement related to social media posts he made at the end of September.
He is now in pre-trial detention and could face up to two years in prison for his alleged offenses.
Local media quoted a family member saying Dara’s car was stopped while he was traveling from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh and that police arrived in a military vehicle and five other cars. The relative said police cited an arrest warrant, seized Dara’s phone and asked his family members to stay in their car.
He has since been taken to a prison in Kandal Province, outside Phnom Penh, where he will remain until his trial.
The Phnom Penh provincial court issued a statement saying Dara has been charged under two articles of Cambodia’s criminal code for incitement to provoke serious social disorder. It said Dara has admitted his guilt.
His arrest came a day after authorities in Prey Veng accused Dara of posting “fake news.” The journalist had posted a photo on Facebook showing destroyed concrete stairs leading to a pagoda that serves as a religious site and tourist destination in the province.
Neil Loughlin, an assistant professor in comparative politics at City University of London who specializes in Southeast Asia, described Dara as one of Cambodia’s most respected journalists.
“His posts related to alleged damage to a temple site cut through, because there is a lot of this kind of thing in the country, where resource extraction and wealth concentration in the hands of the country’s elite is a central part of its elite political settlement,” Loughlin told VOA.
But a spokesman for Cambodia’s Ministry of Information said in a statement that Dara was charged for incitement intended to cause serious unrest impacting social security.
The statement said the actions Dara is charged with are not a “journalism related affair.”
It added that “falsifying information and posting incident messages that distort the truth, slander, fabricate false information that is done with malicious intent to ignite anger among the public with confusions and misconceptions are not considered as freedom of expression.”
Over the years, Dara’s investigative reporting has focused on human trafficking and its connection to illegal scam operations in Cambodia. Dara was once detained by police while reporting on the activities of a scam center in Sihanoukville.
One of his best-known stories saw him link Cambodian tycoon and senator Ly Yong Phat to scam compounds. The U.S. imposed sanctions on the businessman in September.
Cambodia is home to scam centers that have operated in several cities, towns and provinces throughout the country. These include “pig butchering,” in which victims generally are contacted via the internet and enticed to gradually invest in fake and fraudulent schemes over a period of time.
According to a report by the United States Institute of Peace, 100,000 scammers have been involved in pig butchering in Cambodia, generating income estimated at $12.8 billion in 2023.
But Chou Bun Eng, the permanent vice chair of Cambodia’s National Committee for Counter Trafficking, told the pro-government newspaper Khmer Times in March that 80% of human trafficking cases they’ve investigated are “false.”
Journalists like Dara have long faced security risks when covering the illegal scam centers in Cambodia or reporting on other matters that show the government in a bad light.
In 2020, journalist Sok Oudom was convicted and sentenced to 20 months in prison for broadcasting false news with the intent to cause incitement.
In 2021, reporter Khou Piseth was charged with incitement for criticizing officials on Facebook over COVID-19 measures. The same year saw Youn Chhiv sentenced to one year in prison for incitement to cause a felony after he made a Facebook post criticizing a provincial court prosecutor.
“The vague charge of incitement has often been used by Cambodian authorities to target critics, including journalists,” Beh Lih Yi, Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, told VOA via email.
“Arresting one of Cambodia’s best-known journalists on vague charges like incitement is a clear attempt to muzzle any remaining independent reporting left in the country,” she wrote.
Loughlin said incitement charges are typical of the government’s tactics against dissenting voices.
“The charge of incitement to social unrest is telling. Over the past decade, as part of the broader crackdown on dissent, the CPP government has promoted a narrative of stability to legitimate its use of coercion to silence those who criticise it or shine a light on corruption etc.,” he wrote to VOA.
“It uses this narrative to legitimize its repressive control over the country in perpetuity, with anybody who the government doesn’t like targeted for repression, justified in the name of that stability,” he added.
Cambodia has been ruled by the same political party, the Cambodia People Party (CPP), since 1979 and has maintained its grip on power by banning opposition parties and cracking down on dissidents. The CPP shared power with co-prime ministers from 1993-97 with a royalist party. Hun Manet came into power in 2023, taking over as prime minister from his father Hun Sen, who led Cambodia for nearly 40 years.
Reporters without Borders, a media watchdog that ranks 180 countries and territories worldwide for their level of press freedom, has ranked Cambodia at 151, a lowly position in its World Press Freedom Index for 2024.
Cambodia’s Ministry of Information says the country has taken a firm stand to promote the freedom of the press.
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