Prime Minister Leads Assault on Critics, Shutters Blogs
Human Rights Watch
(New York, September 21, 2012) – Vietnamese authorities should drop all charges against three prominent bloggers and immediately release them, Human Rights Watch said today. The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City is scheduled to try Nguyen Van Hai (known as Dieu Cay), Phan Thanh Hai (known as Anhbasg), and Ta Phong Tan on September 24, 2012, for violating article 88 of Vietnam’s penal code for “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” If convicted, the accused could face up to 20 years in prison.
On September 12, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung personally took responsibility for the crackdown on free expression when he ordered the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Information and Communications, and related offices to shut down political blogs that the government disapproved of, punish those behind them, and prohibit state employees to read and/or disseminate news published on them. The order came amid economic upheaval in Vietnam following a series of arrests of well-connected tycoons and managers of state-owned companies.
“The alleged crime committed by these bloggers is to report stories that the government does not want the Vietnamese people to read,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Vietnam’s arbitrary use of vaguely worded national security laws to imprison critics of the government means bloggers are bearing the brunt of this assault on freedom of expression.”
Read more: http://www.hrw.org/node/110273
