Vietnam’s reputation as an increasingly repressive society is worsening. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a watchdog, says the country is now the world’s sixth-biggest jailer of journalists. As in other authoritarian systems, the government is encouraging the spread of the internet for economic reasons (about one-third of the population is now online) yet trying to stifle its use to express views or to gain access to alternative sources of information to the mainstream newspapers and television, which are under strict government control.
