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An award-winning journalist recognized for his investigative stories on human trafficking has been arrested in Cambodia in an additional blow to its press freedoms.
Mech Dara was travelling along with his household from the coastal metropolis of Sihanoukville to the capital Phnom Penh when authorities stopped his automobile and arrested him, the impartial Cambodian Journalists Alliance Affiliation (CamboJA) stated in a press release.
Mr Dara was handed the Hero Award in 2023 by US secretary of state Antony Blinken for his investigations into large rip-off compounds staffed principally by trafficked staff in Cambodia.
He was arrested after sharing posts on social media a few rock quarry. Native officers claimed on Monday his work was an try and foment dissent within the nation.
Mr Dara managed to ship an SMS to Cambodian human rights group Licadho saying he was being arrested by navy police earlier than his cellphone was seized, spokesperson Am Sam Ath stated.
“We knew that he was arrested however we don’t know the place he was taken or the explanation for his arrest,” Am Sam Ath informed AFP, including that the navy police had confirmed Dara’s arrest with out revealing the costs.
A member of the family whom CamboJA didn’t identify stated Mr Dara’s automobile was stopped at a toll sales space on the entrance to the expressway to the capital when police arrived in a navy automobile and 5 different automobiles.
The relative stated the authorities cited an arrest warrant however didn’t present the doc and requested the relations to remain contained in the automobile whereas they seized Mr Dara’s cellphone.
A day earlier than his arrest, the journalist had posted two photos of an alleged quarry operation at a revered mountain Ba Phnom, which has a Buddhist pagoda, within the southeastern province of Prey Veng.
Prey Veng authorities known as the now-deleted photos “pretend information” and accused him of “eager to trigger social dysfunction or confusion”, whereas calling for punishment.
Mr Dara beforehand labored as a journalist for the Cambodia Day by day and the Phnom Penh Put up, two previously thriving English language newspapers compelled to close down underneath authorities strain, and the Voice of Democracy radio station and web site, which was closed by the federal government final yr.
“Each newsroom I work in will get silenced,” he informed the BBC after then Cambodian chief Hun Sen ordered the closure of Voice of Democracy final yr.
Mr Dara is finest recognized for his stories prior to now few years about human trafficking related to on-line rip-off operations.
The exercise entails tricking individuals into signing up for what they consider are professional jobs in Cambodia, just for them then to be saved in digital slavery in compounds typically housing casinos as effectively, the place they go browsing to focus on individuals around the globe.
The US State Division was conscious of stories of Mr Dara’s arrest, a spokesperson stated, including: “We’re following developments carefully with nice concern.”
Cambodia has been the situation of cyberscams that embrace “pig butchering”, a time period that refers to gaining victims’ belief via courting apps or different websites and steering them towards bogus investments.
The Paris-based group Reporters With out Borders in its newest report ranked Cambodia 151st out of 180 in its worldwide press freedom index.
Ten activists from distinguished youth-led environmental group, Mom Nature, have been sentenced to between six and eight years in jail on fees of plotting towards the federal government.
