Vietnam's Leading Journalist Sentenced to Five Years in Prison
On Wednesday, a court in Hanoi sentenced a journalist and the relative of the journalist who attempted to hide him from authorities.
Le Van Dung during a live-streaming reporting in Vietnam.
Le Van Dung, an activist and independent journalist who posts to Facebook and YouTube, was convicted of "propaganda against the state" and sentenced to five years in prison and five years of probation. Nguyen Van Son, 66, was sentenced to an 18-month suspension for helping Dung hide from police. According to his lawyers and family, Dung denies the charges.
Lawyer Ha Huy Son, who represents Dung, called the court's decision "unjust" and "devoid of any basis." He said they will appeal. In June 2021, Dung, a 51-year-old journalist also known as Le Dung Vova, was arrested for his reporting.
Videos and articles he posted on social media discussed land confiscation and corruption, as well as political and social issues. According to a state media report, Dung "made and published 12 video clips" between March 2017 and September 2018. These videos included propaganda against the state, defamed the government, spread false news, caused confusion, and insulted leaders of the Party and the state.
In a statement to the court, Dung argued that it makes no sense to argue about Vietnam's legal system, as quoted by state-run radio Voice of Vietnam. Dung was previously listed as one of more than 60 people who are being prosecuted for speaking out. Human Rights Watch said Vietnam should drop the charges.
“Vietnamese authorities persist in treating any sort of criticism of the government as a grave threat to be prosecuted with long prison terms,” the rights group’s deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said on Tuesday. “International donors and trade partners of Vietnam should press Hanoi to listen to its critics instead of persecuting them,” he added.
With limited space for independent reporting in Vietnam, many independent bloggers and journalists use social media to report or comment on sensitive issues. The country has one of the worst records on the global press freedom index, ranking 175 out of 180 countries where 1 is freest. Accusations of propaganda against the state and abusing freedoms are regularly used to jail critics, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders says.
Many face lengthy sentences. An activist arrested in July on propaganda charges lost his appeal against the sentencing on Thursday. The appeals court in Nam Dinh province upheld a sentence of 10 years’ prison and four years’ probation for rights activist Do Nam Trung, his lawyer told VOA.
“This is an unjust judgment,” said the lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh. He added that under Vietnam’s penal code, violations of speech should be punished only under civil charges. “Trung has held the view that his statements in his video clips and articles are exercising his right to freedom of speech as provided by the constitution, and therefore he believes that the verdict is wrong”, Manh said.
Trung, 40, was arrested on July 6, 2021, for posting six video clips that authorities said were “distorting content” and “defaming the government,” according to state-run media. A court in December sentenced him to prison.
“Vietnam routinely prosecutes people for simply expressing their views critical of the government, making it one of the most dangerous countries in Southeast Asia to be a human rights activist,” said Robertson of Human Rights Watch. “Authorities should immediately and unconditionally release [Trung] for speaking his mind about the government. Vietnam should also immediately repeal the rights-abusing charge of ‘propaganda against the state,’ which has been used so frequently to target government critics,” he added.
