Bopha Phorn - Cambodia - Voice of America Khmer

Bopha Phorn (@bophaphorn) tells of hunting down a Russian pedophile and fearing for her life as she reported on deforestation in Cambodia. The International Women’s Media Foundation has honored her brave reporting with its Courage in Journalism Award. Bopha now reports for Voice of America’s Khmer language edition, a rare source of unrestricted news as Cambodia increasingly stifles press freedoms.

Countries featured: Cambodia, USA

Publications featured: Cambodia Daily, Asian Correspondent, Associated Press, ABC News, Voice of America, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA)

Bopha discusses how seeing a movie at a pagoda as a child inspired her to be a journalist (5:42), how a string of unlikely connections led to her first internship at German wire service DPA (13:18), starting at the Cambodia Daily and grappling with the problems it created with her family (20:47), the harrowing story that led her to receive the IWMF's Courage in Journalism Award (32:44), moving to the U.S. to study, work for the AP and as a science journalist for ABC News (39:48), VOA's role in an increasingly restricted media environment (46:55), her "story that got away" about a Cambodian-American fraud scheme (50:34), her story on hunting down a Russian pedophile in Cambodia (53:21) and finally the lightning round (1:03:31).

 

Here are links to some of the things we talk about: 

Bopha’s english language work for VOA - https://bit.ly/3fFOR2f

Video of Bopha accepting the IWMF Courage in Journalism award - https://bit.ly/3kkmcDv

Bopha’s story tracking down Russian pedophile - https://bit.ly/3gFGIwb

Her story on the pedophile’s arrest - https://bit.ly/31C6tqC

Her story on the larger problem of pedophelia in Cambodia - https://bit.ly/30Gr91z

Rachel Aviv at The New Yorker - https://bit.ly/31qNMWM

Refinery29 video "The Dark Secret Behind Your Favorite Makeup Products" - https://bit.ly/3fF4Z3W

Associated Press story “One meal a day: Yemeni mothers try to feed their families” - https://bit.ly/2DBcSud

On Writing Well by William Zinsser - https://bit.ly/3gRM0EA

 

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