Journalist Coy Saveuth shows the spot where environmental journalist Taing Try's body was found. Image by Saul Elbein. Cambodia, 2014.

Illegal Logging in Eastern Cambodia

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting | 14 September 2016

In the backwoods of Cambodia, logging is ostensibly illegal—but it's also a big business, carried out with gusto by the military and police, as well as ordinary citizens who see the forests vanishing and want a piece of the action. For rural journalists, covering the logging trade is one of the most dangerous things they can do. In October 2014, journalist Taing Try was killed trying to track down a shipment of illegal logs; a few weeks later, Saul Elbein and his fixer Sinary Sany set out for the town where Taing Try was shot.