FCC statement on Cambodian journalist Mech Dara’s arrest

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong is calling for the release of Mech Dara, a Cambodian investigative reporter who was arrested this week in an apparent attempt to silence one of the country’s leading journalists.

Dara was arrested by military police on Sept. 30 at a highway toll booth while driving with a relative to Phnom Penh. Officials initially said little about his arrest other than confirming his detention at an undisclosed location. On Tuesday, he was charged with criminal incitement over social media posts he made in September and sent to pretrial detention by a Phnom Penh court.

The court objected to photos Dara posted on social media showing contrasting images of quarrying activity at a revered mountain in southeastern Cambodia. Local officials denounced the post, said there was no excavation at the site, and accused him of inciting “social disorder,” which can be prosecuted under a criminal incitement statute often abused as a tool of intimidation and suppression.

Dara’s arrest follows last year’s forced closure of Cambodia’s leading independent media outlet, Voice of Democracy. Dara was a reporter for VOD, where he helped uncover the rise of cyber-scam compounds in Cambodia whose bosses often use slave labor to defraud people around the world. The reporting earned him international renown, including an award from the U.S. Department of State.

Cambodia’s use of such heavy-handed tactics to intimidate journalists and shutter news outlets has sharply curtailed independent news coverage and prompted the country to slide precipitously in global press freedom indexes. The FCC supports all reporters’ right to cover stories without fear of harassment or arrest and urges Cambodian authorities to release Dara from prison.