22 Aug 11 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, minipost
Hackers launched a sustained attack against pro-democracy website Viet Tan on 13 August in a denial-of-service (DDoS) operation. Of the 77,000 IP addresses employed, 73 per cent originated from Vietnam. The Hanoi government’s firewall on www.viettan.org was lifted so that the network relying on computers from the country could take down the site. Viet Tan has been constantly blocked by Vietnamese censors, with web users in the country requiring proxies or other circumvention tools to access the site.
10 Aug 11 | Index Index, minipost
A Vietnamese court today sentenced French-Vietnamese activist Pham Minh Hoang to three years in prison on subversion charges for “carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration.” Authorities say he posted several anti-government articles online, and had ties to Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group that is banned in Vietnam. He also faces three years of house arrest following the end of his prison term.
05 Aug 11 | Index Index, minipost
Catholic blogger Paulus Le Son was arrested in Hanoi yesterday during a major police operation targeting around 10 Catholics. Reports suggest Son’s arrest, his second this year, is linked to his attempts to cover court proceedings against cyber-dissident Cu Huy Ha Vu, who is currently appealing against his seven-year jail term for disseminating anti-government propaganda, having advocated a multi-party system. Vietnam was ranked 165th out of 178 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2010 press freedom index.
21 Apr 11 | Index Index, minipost
Vietnamese authorities have dropped charges against a female blogger who was detained for :infringing on the interests of the state”. She was arrested for defamation after describing a senior official’s son as a womanizer. Le Nguyen Huong Tra, who blogged under the pseudonym Co Gai Do Long, was arrested last October and released on bail this January. Authorities have declared her actions to be “less serious” than first thought.
