On the 9th of January, a group of political activists in Vietnam were convicted of plotting to overthrow the Vietnamese state. The majority of them are Catholic, and amongst them are various journalists, bloggers and students. They are the newest addition to the increasing number of recent crackdowns on digital freedom of speech by the Vietnamese government.
he political activists are accused of having links with the ‘Viet Tan’, or the Vietnamese Reform Party, an exiled organisation in the US, which has the aim of peacefully promoting democracy and reform within Vietnam, and spreading their ideas over the Internet. The organisation is considered a terrorist organisation, although the United States government has reported on a lack of evidence for this, and the United Nations have noted that the ‘Viet Tan’ is a peaceful organisation.
This recent incident has sparked a new debate about freedom of speech, especially on digital platforms, in an economy that is eagerly promoting its recent economic openness. While promoting autonomy for entrepreneurs, Vietnam has been reported to persistently be cracking down on freedom of journalists and political dissidents.
The organisation is considered a terrorist organisation, although the United States government has reported on a lack of evidence for this
In September last year, there were also a number of arrests of bloggers convicted of spreading anti-government propaganda. The arrests are following a world-wide trend, with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) estimating that the number of journalists imprisoned around the world has hit an all-time high in 2012, with 232 journalists having been sentenced. This is an increase of 53 from the 179 journalists imprisoned in 2011. One of Vietnam’s most prominent cases was in 2008, when Nguyen Van Hai, a high profile blogger who often goes under the name is Dieu Cay, was detained. He was reporting on local protests against China, a topic that is usually strictly censored on the Internet by the Vietnamese government.
Some of the forbidden topics in Vietnam include human rights abuses, corruption and anti-China sentiment, or a critical perspective on Vietnam’s relations with China. This is especially so with regards to the much debated Spratley Islands in the South China Sea, which contain large amounts of oil and natural gas, besides being strategically placed. Today, this group of islands is claimed by Vietnam and China, as well as Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan. Except for Brunei, all other countries occupy some part of the Spratley Islands.
In the fight to regain control over the Internet, the Vietnamese government has admitted to employing bloggers to support the government, as they are hired to spread the party line over the Internet in order to counter pro-democracy information spread by organisations like the ‘Viet Tan’.
by Margaux Schreur
