Bopha Phorn - Cambodia - Voice of America Khmer

<p>Bopha Phorn (<a href='https://twitter.com/bophaphorn'>@bophaphorn</a>) 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.</p> <p>Countries featured: Cambodia, USA</p> <p>Publications featured: Cambodia Daily, Asian Correspondent, Associated Press, ABC News, Voice of America, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA)</p> <p>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).</p> <p> </p> <p>Here are links to some of the things we talk about: </p> <p>Bopha’s english language work for VOA - <a href='https://bit.ly/3fFOR2f'>https://bit.ly/3fFOR2f</a></p> <p>Video of Bopha accepting the IWMF Courage in Journalism award - <a href='https://bit.ly/3kkmcDv'>https://bit.ly/3kkmcDv</a></p> <p>Bopha’s story tracking down Russian pedophile - <a href='https://bit.ly/3gFGIwb'>https://bit.ly/3gFGIwb</a></p> <p>Her story on the pedophile’s arrest - <a href='https://bit.ly/31C6tqC'>https://bit.ly/31C6tqC</a></p> <p>Her story on the larger problem of pedophelia in Cambodia - <a href='https://bit.ly/30Gr91z'>https://bit.ly/30Gr91z</