On March 8, jailed Vietnamese blogger Ta Phong Tan was among those presented with the 2013 International Women of Courage Award, in absentia.
US Secretary of State John Kerry described the reason for the selection: “As a former member of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Ta Phong Tan made a name for herself when she began posting articles online that were critical of the government and exposing corruption in the Vietnamese legal system. After she was expelled from the party, she started a blog called Truth and Justice, becoming one of the first bloggers in Vietnam to comment on political news and on events that the authorities considered off-limits. She helped inspire an awakening of citizen bloggers and journalists in Vietnam, who today are committed to spreading information and alternate opinions to the Vietnamese people. She was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly conducting propaganda against the state. Yet even as state security forces were dragging her away from a rigged verdict, she cried out to all who could hear, ‘Unjust! Unjust!’”
Read more: http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/programs/iwoc/2013/index.htm
