EGN NEWS DESK
The authorities in Vietnam have arrested one of many nation’s most outstanding journalists and accused him of “abusing democratic freedoms” by posting articles on Facebook that “infringed on the pursuits of the state and the professional rights and pursuits of organizations and people.”
The journalist, Truong Huy San — identified to many by his pen identify, Huy Duc — was taken into custody final week, in line with a outstanding Vietnamese blogger. But there was no official affirmation till Friday night time, when state information media reported that the Ministry of Public Security was investigating Mr. San for his Facebook posts. There had been no particulars on the content material of the posts.
The arrest is an ominous signal for different writers in Vietnam. Journalists have lengthy been a goal for the nation’s ruling Communist Party, which ceaselessly crushes dissent. But Mr. San had for years managed to navigate the very small area for unbiased thought, typically publishing articles that criticized the federal government. His connections with high-level officers had been thought to have been a buffer — till now.
Mr. San’s case is a part of a sweeping repression of civil society that many rights teams say has expanded in scale and scope in recent times. The regulation that he has been accused of violating is an “overly broad” one which the authorities ceaselessly use in opposition to critics of the federal government, in line with Human Rights Watch.
“Huy Duc is essentially the most influential journalist in Vietnam,” mentioned Ben Swanton, a director on the 88 Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that focuses on human rights points in Vietnam. “His arrest represents an alarming assault on freedom of the press and is the newest in an ongoing crackdown on reformers.”
Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and PEN America have all known as on the federal government to launch Mr. San.
Vietnamese state media reported on Mr. San’s case along with the arrest of a lawyer, Tran Dinh Trien, who was charged with the identical offense as Mr. San. Mr. Trien, a former deputy director of the Hanoi Bar Association, has represented many consumers in high-profile authorized instances. He was additionally arrested due to articles he had posted on Facebook.
After Mr. San, 62, disappeared on June 1, his Facebook account, with greater than 350,000 followers, was deactivated, its posts taken down.
Screenshots saved by the 88 Project present that on May 26, Mr. San took intention on the police on Facebook with a headline: “A COUNTRY CANNOT DEVELOP BASED ON FEAR.” He criticized the focus of energy below the Ministry of Public Security, which was most not too long ago led by To Lam, the newly appointed president.
On May 28, Mr. San posted an article criticizing the crackdown on corruption initiated by Vietnam’s highly effective Communist Party chief, Nguyen Phu Trong. Mr. San wrote that combating graft wanted to be achieved by establishments and never by “eliminating” a number of corrupt high-ranking officers.
In 2016, Mr. Trong mentioned that his “blazing furnace” marketing campaign in opposition to graft would eradicate “dangerous roots” and purify the party, nevertheless it has additionally roiled Vietnam with an uncommon variety of high-level resignations.
If Mr. Trong “doesn’t present a political highway map to make the nation extra democratic, his cleanliness is meaningless,” Mr. San wrote in his May 28 publish.
Mr. San acquired a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship to review on the University of Maryland in 2005-2006. When he returned to Vietnam in 2006, he based a preferred weblog that printed social and political commentaries. The Vietnamese authorities shut down the weblog in 2010.
In 2012, Mr. San spent a yr at Harvard University on a Nieman fellowship, throughout which he wrote a journalistic account of Vietnam’s postwar period titled “The Winning Side.” The guide, which is banned in Vietnam, is extensively thought-about to be the definitive account of postwar Vietnamese historical past and politics.
According to the 2024 World Press Freedom Index issued by Reporters Without Borders, Vietnam ranks 174th out of the 180 international locations and territories.
The nation is “the fifth worst jailer of journalists worldwide,” with at the very least 19 reporters locked up as of December, in line with the Committee to Protect Journalists.
