An award-winning Cambodian journalist known for his reporting on human trafficking in the cyber scam industry was arrested on Monday, according to the independent Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA).
Mech Dara won a Hero Award last year for his investigations into exploitation at online scam compounds in Cambodia. The award, which recognises efforts against human trafficking, was presented by US secretary of state Antony Blinken.
Authorities made the arrest after stopping a car carrying Dara and his family from Sihanoukville – a coastal city where many suspected scam operations take place – to Phnom Penh, CamboJA said in a statement.
It said that military police spokesperson Eng Hy confirmed the arrest without revealing the charge or Dara’s current whereabouts.
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.
“We knew that he was arrested but we don’t know where he was taken or the reason for his arrest,” Am Sam Ath, operations director of Licadho, told AFP.
Cambodian authorities could not be reached immediately for comment. A day before his arrest, Dara had posted an image on his social media platforms that purportedly showed a tourist site demolished to make way for a quarry, according to CamboJA.
Local authorities labelled the now-deleted images as “fake news” and called for Dara to face punishment for their publication.
Dara previously worked for independent media outlet Voice of Democracy before Cambodian authorities shut it down in February last year.
He has since used his social media platforms to share news content, particularly around the proliferation of notorious “scam farms” – criminal operations which defraud victims online for vast sums of cash and fuel human trafficking across the region.
Cambodia ranks near the bottom of international press freedom rankings. The regime, which has ruled since 1979, is clamping down on dissent.
Independent newspaper The Cambodia Daily shuttered in 2017 over a tax dispute, while scores of other outlets closed the following year ahead of elections.