This conviction has sparked critical critics on the part of the United States concerning the repression of freedom of expression by the communist government.
Le Monde with AFP
Vietnam has again seven the criticism on Facebook. The CAN THO court imprisoned, Friday, October 29, five citizens journalists for “abuse of democratic rights”. They were working on an online information page of citizen journalists.
Truong Chau Huu Danh, founder of the Bao Sach Facebook page, which publishes articles on burning social issues and corruption, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Mr. Danh’s articles, former journalist, contained “reactionary thoughts, going at the bottom of things and not serving the country’s interests,” said the Vietnamese press agency, citing judicial documents.
His four co-accused were sentenced to prison sentences from two to three years.
A conviction denounced by the United States
All five will be prohibited to work in journalism for three years after serving their prison sentence.
This verdict is the last on the date of a “troubling trend” to the detention of workers of the press and any citizen “exercising his rights to freedom of expression and the press,” said Friday the door -PAROLE OF THE US STATE DEPARTMENT, NED PRICE.
“This group of journalists focuses on investigative reports on corruption, which, of course, is not a crime,” he said in a statement. “The United States calls on the Vietnamese authorities (…) to free these five journalists and unjustly detained people, and to allow all individuals in Vietnam to express their opinions freely and without fear of reprisals.”
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A tendency to stifle the dissent
The last line of Vietnamese administration often acts quickly to stifle the dissent, imprisoning activists, journalists and any criticism with a great hearing on Facebook, widely used in the country.
In July, the former reporter of Radio Pham Chi Thanh, also a well-known pro-democracy activist, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for broadcast information on Facebook.
According to its detractors, the government has adopted a much harder approach to dissent since the re-election of Nguyen Phu Trong at the head of the Communist Party, at the end of a secret congress held at the beginning of The year.
Vietnam occupies the 175 e place on 180 countries in the world ranking of the freedom of the press established by Reporters Without Borders in 2021.