PHNOM PENH – It’s tough being a reporter in Cambodia, whose government frowns on independent journalism that questions authority.
Veteran investigative reporter Mech Dara learned the hard way, when he was recently jailed on a felony charge for some items he had posted on Facebook.
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Now he plans to be a farmer, he said Tuesday.
In a statement of support last month from Cambodian media organizations and civil society groups, Mech Dara was praised as “a front-line investigative journalist whose stories over the last decade have uncovered corruption, environmental destruction, and human trafficking at scam compounds across the country, and has consistently pushed for accountability and justice.”
But now out on bail, Mech Dara told The Associated Press he plans to leave the profession and grow vegetables in his hometown in Kandal province, just south of the capital Phnom Penh.
When not tending his crop, he might also sell coconuts or other items, he said.
Mech Dara recalled he spent 12 years working as journalist, for the Cambodia Daily and the Phnom Penh Post, two once-vibrant English-language newspapers forced to shut down under government pressure, and the Voice of Democracy radio and website, which was closed by the government last year. Now 36 years old, he had since then been working as a freelancer.
“In fact, I had been determined to keep working as a journalist for many years to come,” he said, “and to overcome all the obstacles I would meet."
But a few weeks spent in jail, with poor prospects of prevailing in court, changed his mind. Cambodia’s government has long been accused of using the judicial system to persecute critics and political opponents.
Mech Dara was arrested on Sept. 30 by a posse of military police at a toll booth as he was returning with his family to the capital Phnom Penh from a seaside holiday. The next day, he was formally charged with incitement to commit a felony or cause social disorder for items he posted online in late September. The offense carried a penalty of imprisonment for six months to two years, along with a fine.
Mech Dara said his initial, all-night interrogation was rough. He was in handcuffs and flanked by two policemen armed with AK-47 assault rifles as he was questioned. And they walked him up and down from the ground floor to the second floor, again and again, threatening him repeatedly.
Matters didn’t improve when he was sent to pre-trial detention at the Kandal provincial prison.
He neither slept nor ate well in the narrow, overcrowded cell where he was kept for more than three weeks. He said he saw prisoners slapping and punching each other and fainting, and heard of others dying. It made him wonder “whether or not I could see tomorrow and if the next day it could be me."
Adding to his concerns were his existing health problems, including Hepatitis B.
At the same time, he realized that the prospects of earning a living as a reporter were shrinking, especially because as a freelance journalist it was difficult to get licensed by the Information Ministry,.
His situation took a new turn on Oct. 23, when Fresh News, a pro-government media outlet, published a video of him in an orange prison uniform, apologizing to Prime Minister Hun Manet and former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is now president of the Senate. Hun Manet succeeded his long-serving father as prime minister last year but so far has shown little more tolerance for criticism.
In a minute-long clip, Mech Dara stated he had posted five instances of false information in the past that were harmful to Cambodia and its leaders, and he promised not to post false information in the future.
The next day he was released on bail.
The most recent adjustment to his situation came on Monday, when Hun Manet on his Facebook page shared two photographs of him and Mech Dara, one in which they hugged each other, and another of them sitting face to face,.
Hun Manet said he had met Mech Dara and they talked about several topics, such as freedom of expression and the responsibility of journalists to publish true information, and to adhere to their professional code of ethics.
Mech Dara hasn’t posted anything on his Facebook page since his release.
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Associated Press writer Grant Peck reported from Bangkok.