A foreign journalist known for reporting on scam-related crimes and abduction cases in Cambodia said he was threatened after publishing a report about an alleged kidnapping at an apartment in Phnom Penh.
The journalist told CamboJA on 2 June that the incident occurred on 30 May 2026. He said that a foreign couple who owned the apartment had threatened him via WeChat after he published a report on an alleged kidnapping at the property. According to the journalist, the couple demanded that he remove the apartment's name from the article and warned that he would face consequences if he failed to do so.
On 1 June 2026, the journalist also posted on his X account, writing: “No more time! It’s so difficult to do news reporting in Chinese in Cambodia. Yesterday, we received another threat because of our reporting on the kidnapping case. They even demanded that the Tencent platform ban our WeChat official account.”
The journalist said the couple also offered him money to delete the article, but he refused. He added that the wife continued to warn him, saying, “Don’t harm more people.”
However, no further action was taken against the journalist as the couple withdrew their complaint from the WeChat platform on 1 June 2026. The journalist did not provide a reason for the withdrawal, and the report remained online.