7 November 2013
The Vietnamese authorities must end their alarming crackdown on dissent and immediately put in place measures to protect activists from further harassment and imprisonment simply for exercising their rights, Amnesty International said in a new report today.
Silenced Voices: Prisoners of Conscience in Viet Nam examines how laws and decrees are used to criminalize freedom of expression, both online and in the streets. It also lists 75 prisoners of conscience in Viet Nam, some of whom have been locked up in harsh conditions for years.
“Viet Nam is fast turning into one of South East Asia’s largest prisons for human rights defenders and other activists. The government’s alarming clampdown on free speech has to end,” said Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s Viet Nam Researcher.
