Mech Dara, one of Cambodia’s most prominent journalists, known for exposing the country’s billion-dollar scam industry, has been released on bail after a video of him apologising to the country’s leaders appeared in pro-government media.
Dara was arrested last month while travelling with his family, and charged with incitement over social media posts.
On Wednesday a government-friendly site published a video of Dara, wearing a prison uniform, apologising and asking for forgiveness for various social media posts. He had been held in a cramped cell with more than a hundred inmates for more than three weeks.
“In all the messages that I posted, I conveyed false information that affected the leaders and the country’s reputation. I sincerely apologise for my mistakes and promise to stop sharing such harmful content,” Dara said in the video.
He could still face 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 fought the charges against him.
The arrest was a serious blow to the country’s independent media, which has faced years of attacks aimed at shutting down any scrutiny of leadership in the country, which is in effect a one-party state.
His case also has ramifications beyond Cambodia’s borders. Dara was at the forefront of reporting on the industrial-scale scam operations that have exploded in the country over recent years, where workers are trafficked, held in heavily fortified compounds and forced to trick victims around the world into handing over vast sums of money.
It is feared the legal charges will have a chilling effect on independent reporting of such crime, which is estimated to bring in more than $12.5bn annually – equal to half of Cambodia’s formal GDP, according to an estimate by the United States Institute of Peace.
“There’s absolutely no way that the international attention that is now on scam activity and the human trafficking related to it would be on the same level if it wasn’t for Dara,” said Nathan Paul Southern, an investigative journalist and operations director at the Eye Witness Project, who collaborated with Dara.
Dara investigated scam compounds doggedly for the outlet Voice of Democracy (VOD) until it was shuttered last year by authorities in a move widely seen as an attack on independent media. He continued reporting for other outlets, doing so at far greater risk and with fewer rewards than many international reporters, Southern said.
His reports documented the Telegram channels where trafficked workers are bought and sold, and the desperate pleas of those trapped inside compounds; he wrote about workers who jumped from balconies in attempts to escape, and the role and response of Cambodian officials.
Last month the US announced sanctions against Ly Yong Phat, a ruling party senator, for his “role in serious human rights abuse related to the treatment of trafficked workers subjected to forced labour in online scam centres”. Dara had reported on the tycoon’s links to scam operations.
Cambodia’s foreign ministry called the sanctions politically motivated.
Phil Robertson, the director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates (AHRLA), said a concerted international effort was needed to ensure the charges against Dara were dropped. “The only reason that the Cambodian government will [give in] in any way shape or form, is if they feel that they’re going to lose something.
“The fact that they’re going after [Dara] instead of going after these companies and criminals who are running these scam centres – it really shows that the Cambodian government is in on it.”
According to a 2024 US trafficking report, “corruption and official complicity – including by high-level senior government officials” in trafficking was “widespread and endemic”.
Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, who is visiting Cambodia this week, told media the US 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 at 3am and walk 6 miles (10km) to collect leftover rice harvested by local farmers and bring it home to his grandmother before starting school. “I often skipped school to try and catch fish, from morning to evening. Sometimes I would almost faint [from hunger]. It was a part of country life,” he said.
When his grandmother died, he stayed at a pagoda and later moved to live with relatives in Phnom Penh. It was in the capital that his path to journalism began. He learned English and began cycling to the offices of the Cambodia Daily after school so that he could read the pages of the paper that were posted on a board outside. He managed to secure a job there, sorting the archives, and went on to become a reporter.
Although best known for his reporting on scams and human trafficking – he was given a hero award last year by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in recognition of such work – he has spent years covering human rights and environmental issues. Multiple other outlets that he has written for have been shuttered or silenced, including the Cambodia Daily, which was closed in 2017, while the Phnom Penh Post was sold to a PR company. He has contributed to a wide range of international outlets, including the Guardian.
