PHNOM PENH (AFP) – An award-winning Cambodian journalist arrested over social media posts was freed on bail yesterday after pro-government media released a prison video showing him apologising to the country’s leaders.
Police arrested Mech Dara on September 30 after stopping a car carrying him and his family from Sihanoukville, a coastal city where many suspected cyber scam operations take place. Dara is renowned for his reporting on human trafficking in Cambodia’s notorious cyber scam industry and his arrest on charges of inciting social disorder drew international condemnation.
He was freed on bail from a prison near Phnom Penh yesterday and said he would take a break from journalism while he fights the charges against him.
He said he needed to take time to recover mentally and physically from his detention. His successful bail application came less than a day after government-friendly media outlet Fresh News released a video of him apologising.
The footage, released late Wednesday, showed Dara dressed in an orange prison uniform, hands pressed together in supplication and apparently kneeling. In the video, Dara apologises to Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen and his son Hun Manet, the current prime minister, saying his posts contained “false information that is harmful to the leaders and the country”.
