The authorities in Cambodia on Monday arrested a journalist known for his work on exposing human trafficking in online scam compounds, less than a month after the United States punished a powerful Cambodian businessman over what it said was his role in the criminal enterprise.
Mech Dara, 36, was arrested by military police officers at the request of civilian prosecutors, said Eng Hy, a spokesman for Cambodia’s military police. He declined to say what the charge was or where Mr. Mech Dara was being held, saying the investigation was “confidential.”
Mr. Mech Dara has reported extensively on Cambodia’s scam compounds — where thousands of people have been lured by the promise of legitimate jobs only to be forced under the threat of torture to cheat people online. He has documented links between them and Ly Yong Phat, a tycoon who is also a senator and a personal adviser to Prime Minister Hun Manet.
In September, the United States issued sanctions against Mr. Ly Yong Phat for “serious human rights abuse related to the treatment of trafficked workers subjected to forced labor in online scam centers.”
Cambodia’s foreign ministry has rejected the accusations, saying the sanctions were “politically motivated.”
But Jake Sims, a founding partner of Operation Shamrock, a global coalition working to fight organized cybercrime in Southeast Asia, said the penalties against Mr. Ly Yong Phat were the most meaningful policy action taken by any government since the global scamming phenomenon started several years ago. Mr. Sims said Mr. Mech Dara was crucial in unearthing the scam centers.
“He’s been at the forefront of exposing some of the largest instances of state-affiliated, state-driven criminality in the country,” Mr. Sims said. “It certainly implies that some of the most powerful people in the country feel threatened by the work that he’s doing.”
Mr. Mech Dara, he said, was “effectively one of the last independent journalists working in Cambodia.”
The reporter was arrested in Sre Ambil, a district of Koh Kong Province in the country’s southeast, according to a family member, who declined to be named for fear of government reprisals. He was dragged out of a car at around 4 p.m. on Monday as he was returning from a family trip with his parents and others.
But that same day, a provincial government asked the nation’s Information Ministry to take legal action against Mr. Mech Dara after a recent Facebook post by him with old photos showing rubble near a sacred mountain in the southeastern province of Prey Veng. In 2023, local news media reported that a private company was digging near the mountain, though it was unclear what the purpose was.
On Monday, the Prey Veng provincial administration denied that there was any such destruction and said that the photos were fake. It accused Mr. Mech Dara of “inciting all Cambodians across the country to be confused about the loss of the mountain.”
Cambodian authorities have a long track record of pressuring local journalists. Mr. Hun Manet, the prime minister, has followed the playbook of his father, Hun Sen on silencing criticism and dissent. Mr. Hun Sen was prime minister for nearly four decades before he stepped down last year.
Rights activists called for Mr. Mech Dara’s immediate release. “Arresting one of Cambodia’s bravest journalists will have a devastating effect on access to information for all Cambodians,” Naly Pilorge, outreach director of Licadho, a prominent human rights organization based in Cambodia, said in a statement.
Last year, the State Department awarded Mr. Mech Dara for his work on unearthing human trafficking.
Mr. Mech Dara previously worked for the Cambodia Daily, which shut down in 2017 because of government pressure; the Phnom Penh Post, which was bought out by a government-friendly businessman in 2018; and the Voice of Democracy, which had its license revoked in 2023.
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