The award-winning reporter is renowned for his investigations exposing corruption, environmental destruction and human trafficking in a country that heavily restricts press freedom. In 2023, Mech Dara won the US State Department’s TIP Hero Award for his work uncovering the multi-billion-dollar illegal scam center industry in Cambodia. Cambodia is ranked 151 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders’ 2024 World Press Freedom Index. As a freelancer, Mech Dara worked for several local and international media outlets including Voice of Democracy, which was forced to close last year. At the time, Mech Dara told CNN: “We fought for the truth.

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Persons: Dara, “, LICADHO, Mech Dara, Antony Blinken, Mech, Dara “, ”, Clampdown, Hun Sen, Hun Manet, Cambodia’s, Kate Schuetze Organizations: CNN, Cambodian, Court, Mech, US, Department’s, Embassy, USAID, USAID Cambodia Counter, European Union, US State Department, United Nations, US Institute of Peace, UN, Cambodia Rights, of Democracy, Amnesty International Locations: Cambodian, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, USAID Cambodia, Australia, Southeast Asia, Asia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, ”