A Cambodian reporter who exposed scams charged over online posts

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A Cambodian investigative reporter who exposed online scams and corruption was charged on Tuesday with a criminal offense that could land him in prison for two years for material he posted on social media.

Freelance reporter Mech Dara was arrested Monday by military police at a toll booth as he was returning with his family to the capital Phnom Penh from a seaside holiday.

Ei Rin, a spokesperson for the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, told The Associated Press that Mech Dara was charged with incitement to commit a felony or cause social disorder for items he posted online on four days in late September.

The penalty for the offense is imprisonment for six months to two years, along with a fine. He said Mech Dara was sent to pre-trial detention at Kandal provincial prison outside the capital.

The arrest was condemned by journalists who worked with him as well as from press freedom and rights groups.

“Cambodian authorities must release and drop criminal incitement charges against investigative journalist Mech Dara,” said the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Shawn Crispin, senior Southeast Asia representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Mech Dara’s arrest shows “just how far Cambodia’s government is willing to go to squelch independent reporting,”

About four dozen Cambodian media organizations and civil society groups issued a joint statement calling for his immediate release and to “stop all forms of harassment against media organizations and journalists.”

The statement praised Mech Dara as “a front-line investigative journalist whose stories over the last decade have uncovered corruption, environmental destruction, and human trafficking at scam compounds across