The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh and 49 local and international NGOs have called on the Cambodian government to immediately release local journalist Mech Dara following his arrest and pre-trial detention over an incitement charge, which took place over the past two days.
In its joint statement, concerned NGOs and communities declared that the charge against Dara, which carries a maximum prison sentence of two years, is “a clear attempt to silence a brave journalist whose investigative journalism has routinely called for accountability in cases of human rights violations.”
“We urge the Cambodian government to immediately drop the charges against Mech Dara, release him from prison and stop all forms of harassment against media organizations and journalists,” the statement, which was endorsed by organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and CamboJA, the research and advocacy division of CamboJA News, declared. “The arrest of Dara is a clear attempt to intimidate and silence him and other journalists in a country where press freedoms are routinely curtailed.”
The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh said it was “deeply troubled” by Dara’s arrest and called for his immediate release, citing the right to freedom of expression guaranteed in Cambodia’s constitution.
The Australian Embassy and the European Union echoed the U.S. statement, with Australia emphasizing the need for all Cambodians to exercise their right to freedom of expression without fear of arrest or persecution.
On October 1, investigating judge Lim Sokuntheara charged Dara with “incitement to disturb social security” for social media posts he made on September 20, 23, 26, 28, and 29, before sending him to pre-trial detention at Kandal Provincial prison.
The incitement charge falls under Articles 494 and 495 of Cambodia’s Criminal Code, a set of provisions often criticized by local and international rights groups for being used to silence critical and oppositional voices.
Reim Bora, Dara’s defense lawyer, who only first visited him at Kandal provincial prison Wednesday morning, said he is physically healthy but feels disheartened about the situation.
“He expressed his regret that he did not understand what could come from his posting, he thought it was irrelevant, but now he understands that it has an impact and he regrets what has come of it,” Bora said.
According to the Phnom Penh Municipal court, Dara allegedly admitted to “acting as charged.”
When discussing the court’s claim of Dara’s admission, Bora stated that he has not yet been given access to Dara’s case file and was not present during Dara’s questioning, so he cannot provide an answer.
Bora confirmed that Dara has asked him to request a bail application.
In a statement issued by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court late Tuesday evening, Dara’s social media posts – specifically one that appeared to show damage caused by a quarry operation to the concrete stairs leading to Ba Phnom, a pagoda and local tourist attraction in Prey Veng province – were labeled as “distorting facts, slander, and fabricated,” with the “intention to spread false information to incite anger and confusion among the public about leadership.”
Am Sam Ath, the Operations Director of the local human rights group LICADHO, said the court’s accusations are unjustified.
Sam Ath views Dara’s posts about Ba Phnom as a matter of freedom of expression and emphasized that they do not constitute a crime.
He also asserted that Dara was likely targeted due to his past reporting on human trafficking networks and cyber scam compounds in Cambodia (which have been linked to politically connected tycoons). Some of Dara’s reporting tied prominent businessman and senator Ly Yong Phat to a scam compound. Phat was recently sanctioned by the U.S. government, a move the ruling Cambodian People’s Party called “baseless and unfair.”
Last year, Dara won the U.S. State Department’s human trafficking Hero Award for his coverage of Cambodia’s scam compounds, where an estimated 100,000 people have been forced to work – under threat of violence – as perpetrators of online scams targeting people across the world.
The Ministry of Information insisted that Dara’s case is not related to his journalistic work and that NGOs and other groups should not martyr him or use his case to make “false and baseless” claims about the state of press freedom in Cambodia.
Among the many institutions and groups calling for Dara’s release, the regional anti-corruption network Journalists Against Corruption (JAC), declared that there are no justifiable grounds to continue holding him.
“Like any journalist, Mech Dara enjoys the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press — in essence, the freedom to do his job to the extent of exposing wrongdoing without the threat of harassment, detention and arrest hanging over his head,” JAC wrote in a public statement.
