Journalist who exposed Cambodia’s fraud industry released by authorities | Freedom of the press

Mech Dara, one of Cambodia’s most prominent journalists known for exposing the country’s multi-billion dollar fraud industry, was released on bail after a video surfaced in pro-government media in which he apologized to the country’s leadership.

Dara was arrested last month while traveling with his family and charged with inciting social media posts.

On Wednesday, a pro-government website published a video showing Dara, dressed in a prison uniform, apologizing for various social media posts and asking for forgiveness. He had been held in a cramped cell with more than a hundred inmates for more than three weeks.

“In all the messages I posted, I conveyed false information that impacted the country’s leaders and reputation. I sincerely apologize for my mistakes and promise not to share such harmful content again,” Dara said in the video.

He still faces up to two years in prison on the charges, which have been widely condemned by press freedom and human rights advocates. Dara said after his release that he would take a break from journalism while he fights the allegations against him.

The arrest was a major blow to the country’s independent media, which has faced years of attacks aimed at eliminating any checks on the leadership in what is effectively a one-party state.

His case also has implications beyond Cambodia’s borders. Dara has been at the forefront of reporting on the large-scale fraud operations that have exploded in the country in recent years – where workers are trafficked, held in heavily fortified camps and forced to con victims around the world into handing over huge sums of money .

It is feared the charges will have a chilling effect on independent reporting on such crimes, which, according to an estimate by the United States Institute of Peace, generate more than $12.5 billion annually – equivalent to half of Cambodia’s formal GDP .

“Without Dara, there is no way the international attention now focused on fraud activities and related human trafficking would be at the same level,” said Nathan Paul Southern, investigative journalist and director of operations at the Eye Witness Project, which worked with Dara.

Dara persistently investigated fraudulent ties for the Voice of Democracy (VOD) channel until it was shut down by authorities last year in what was widely seen as an attack on independent media. He continued to report for other media outlets, taking far greater risks and receiving fewer rewards than many international reporters, Southern said.

His reports documented the Telegram channels through which trafficked workers are bought and sold and the desperate pleas of those trapped in the camps; He wrote about workers jumping from balconies trying to escape and the role and response of Cambodian officials.

Last month, the U.S. announced sanctions against Ly Yong Phat, a ruling party senator, over his “role in serious human rights violations related to the treatment of human trafficking workers forced to perform forced labor in online fraud centers.” Dara had reported on the tycoon’s links to fraud operations.

The Cambodian Foreign Ministry described the sanctions as politically motivated.

Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates (AHRLA), said a concerted international effort was needed to ensure charges against Dara were dropped. “The only reason the Cambodian government will do this [give in] in any way, shape or form if they feel like they are going to lose something.

“The fact that they go after [Dara] Instead of going after these companies and criminals who are running these fraud centers, it really shows that the Cambodian government is involved.”

According to a 2024 U.S. human trafficking report, “corruption and official complicity – including by high-ranking government officials” in human trafficking were “widespread and endemic.”

Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, who is visiting Cambodia this week, told media the U.S. was following Dara’s case “very closely.”

Dara was born in rural Kandal Province, near the capital Phnom Penh. In an interview with the BBC, he described how as a child he would sometimes wake up at 3 a.m. and run 10 km (6 miles) to collect leftover rice harvested by local farmers and bring it home to his grandmother before school started. “I often skipped school from morning to night to try to catch fish. Sometimes I almost fainted [from hunger]. It was a part of country life,” he told the outlet.

When his grandmother died, he lived in a pagoda and later moved to Phnom Penh to live with relatives. His path to journalism began in the capital. He learned English and began cycling to the Cambodia Daily offices after school to read the pages of the newspaper posted on a board outside. He managed to secure a job there sorting through the archives and later became a reporter.

Although he is best known for his reporting on fraud and human trafficking – in recognition of this work he was awarded the Hero Award by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year – he has been working on human rights and environmental issues for years. Several other outlets he has written for have been closed or silenced, including the Cambodia Daily, which closed in 2017, while the Phnom Penh Post was sold to a PR firm. He has written for numerous international media outlets, including the Guardian.