Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of Le Van Dung
Reported by
several state media outlets, Le Van Dung’s arrest in the
capital, Hanoi, on 30 June was confirmed by his wife on 1 July.
Better
known by
the journalistic pseudonym of Le Dung Vova, Dung is the founder and
presenter of Chan
Hung Nuoc Viet TV (CHTV), an online TV news channel
available on Facebook Live, YouTube and other social media, in which he
interviewed members of the public and commented about such matters as corruption
and illegal land expropriation – both sensitive issues for the authorities.
The Hanoi
police went to his home to arrest him on 25 May but he was not there at the time
and went into hiding until finally arrested last week under article of 117 of
the Vietnam’s penal code, which punishes the dissemination of “information,
documents, items and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”
and carries a possible 20-year jail term.
“We demand
the immediate release of Le Van Dung, who has joined the long list of Vietnamese
journalists imprisoned simply for trying to provide their fellow citizens with
reliable information,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.
“The Vietnamese authorities display their complete contempt for the rule of law
by flagrantly violating article 25 of the country’s constitution, which
proclaims freedom of the press.”
General
secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam and head of its politburo since
2011, Nguyen Phu Trong is the driving force behind the much harsher line that
the government has been taking for the past five years and, as such, has rightly
been included in
the gallery
of press freedom predators that RSF published yesterday.
Vietnam is
ranked 175th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World
Press Freedom Index.
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