Award-winning Cambodian reporter quits journalism after arrest

A high-profile Cambodian reporter who won an international award for uncovering alleged cyber scams told AFP Tuesday that he is quitting journalism, saying he has lost "courage" after being arrested by the authorities and freed on bail.

Police arrested Mech Dara on September 30 on charges of inciting social disorder, drawing condemnation from around the world.

He was released on bail three weeks later after apologising to Cambodia's former leader Hun Sen and his son Prime Minister Hun Manet in a video shot while he was in prison.

"I have decided that I am retiring from journalism because of the arrest, the questioning and imprisonment," Dara told AFP.

"I am still afraid."

Dara said he was questioned all night after his arrest, and police threatened to hit him and deny him food and water unless he cooperated.

"I have lost my courage. It has attacked my spirit, and I have no more courage," Dara said, referring to the arrest and time he spent in prison.

"The questioning and then being in the prison, it really, really crushed my soul -- the soul that is always with me, no matter what is happening, I continue to report. But that spirit or soul is not with me any more."

He also urged the court to drop the charges against him.

Hun Manet on Monday posted pictures of him meeting Dara, including one showing the pair embracing one another.

Dara said he informed Hun Manet of his decision to quit journalism during the meeting, which took place a day after his release.

Police detained Dara, 36, after stopping a car carrying him and his family from Sihanoukville, a coastal city where many suspected cyber scam operations take place.

His reporting over 10 years has appeared in various international news outlets and he worked for the independent Voice of Democracy in Cambodia before the authorities shut it down in February 2023.

Dara has since used his social media platforms to share news content, particularly around the proliferation of "scam farms" -- criminal operations that defraud victims online for vast sums of money and fuel human trafficking across the region.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year presented Dara with a Hero Award, which recognises efforts against human trafficking, for investigations into exploitation at the online scam compounds.

The award hailed his "courageous reporting on human trafficking for the purpose of forced criminality", saying it had led to the government improving its response to the problem.

The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom campaign group said Dara's departure would "leave a hole in the Cambodian journalistic field".

"By repressing journalists such as Mech Dara, the Cambodian government sent a chilling message and directly threatens any remaining independent journalists in the country," RSF's Aleksandra Bielakowska told AFP.

Beh Lih Yi, Asia Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said the departure of independent journalism was "alarming".

"Cambodia's once vibrant free press is a ghost of its former self after nearly four decades of Hun Sen's iron-fisted rule. Prime Minister Hun Manet is no different from his father," Beh told AFP.

Dara's arrest came a day after he posted an image on social media purportedly showing a tourist site demolished to make way for a quarry, according to the Cambodian Journalists' Alliance Association.

Local authorities labelled the now-deleted images "fake news" and called for Dara to face punishment for their publication.

After announcing charges against Dara, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court accused him of posting messages on social media platforms designed to "ignite anger (and) to make people misunderstand about the leadership of the Cambodian government".

The charge of incitement is frequently used by Cambodian authorities against activists, and Dara could face up to two years in jail if convicted.

Cambodia places near the bottom of international press freedom rankings and rights groups have long accused the government of using legal cases as a tool to silence dissenting voices.