Vietnam: Blogger Pham Minh Hoang’s jail term reduced

29 Nov 11 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost

A Vietnamese court have halved the jail sentence of a blogger after international pressure from government’s and NGO’s. Pham Minh Hoang was sentenced to three years imprisonment for attempted subversion in August this year after he wrote 33 articles under a pseudonym, which were ruled by the court to “blacken the image of the country” and aimed to topple the government. Hoang will be released on January 13 after serving a 17-month sentence, but will then serve three years of house arrest.

Vietnam: Two citizen journalists facing jail for operating pirate radio

06 Oct 11 | Index Index, minipost

Two citizen journalists face trial in Vietnam today for operating pirate radio to China.  Vu Duc Trung and Le Van Thanh face charges of illegally retransmitting radio programmes after they began broadcasting Chinese-language programmes from Sound of Hope Network, a Chinese radio station based in California. According to a Vietnamese Public Security Ministry document, the programmes, which were critical of the Chinese government, were the subject of a note to the Vietnamese authorities, asking them to stop the broadcasts. The trial, which was due to begin today, has been postponed for the second time.

Vietnam: Pro-democracy activists released

30 Aug 11 | Index Index, minipost

On 2 September, the Vietnamese government granted amnesty to 10,000 detainees, including blogger Nguyen Van Tinh and poet Tran Duch Thach, in celebration of the nation’s 66th anniversary of independence. The pair were convicted of “propaganda against the socialist state” for hanging pro-democracy banners in Haiphong in October 2009. Tinh was handed a three and a half year sentence for the crime, while Thach was sentenced to three years.

Vietnam: Eight protesters still held after anti-China rally

23 Aug 11 | Index Index, minipost

Eight anti-China demonstrators in Hanoi who ignored government orders to end a series of protests remain in custody for investigation into causing public disorder. They were among the 47 detained at the rally on Sunday — the tenth of its kind in the Vietnamese capital — in which protesters objected to China’s supposed invasion of South China Sea waters, where the two nations have a longstanding sovereignty dispute.