Latest news with #Swanton
The Age
7 days ago
- The Age
Sixty years after they died together, two soldiers awarded for gallantry
But the military downplayed other acts of astonishing courage by both Wheatley and by Swanton. Warrant Officer Swanton, when he was shot on November 13, 1965, was attempting to save the life of a wounded South Vietnamese soldier by carrying him across the paddy field, knowing he was exposing himself to enemy gunfire. It was a selfless act that led to his own death after Wheatley dragged him to cover. Yet a military officer dismissed Swanton's eligibility for a medal, declaring that 'whilst his actions could be described as 'courageous', these actions are what all service personnel are expected to perform in an attempt to preserve the life of a wounded comrade'. The appeals tribunal overturned that decision. Swanton's niece Chantal Swanton-Gallant flew from Queensland to accept the posthumous award. She and her son, Nicholas Swanton-Gallant, asked for privacy after the emotional and belated ceremony. They were joined by members of Wheatley's family after the awards investiture. Wheatley's Award for Gallantry was for two separate acts of great courage. The first was on May 28, 1965 – 60 years to the day before his Medal for Gallantry was finally awarded and presented to his son, who was just 11 when he died. Pinned down by gunfire in a shallow ditch in Quang Tri Province, Wheatley saw a terrified Vietnamese girl, aged about three, break away from her mother and run screaming down the road. Warrant Officer Second Class Wheatley, aged 28 and with four children of his own back in Australia, leapt from cover and, fully exposed to heavy gunfire, ran to the little girl, scooped her up in his arms and raced her to safety, shielding her with his own body. A recommendation for a 'Mention in Dispatches' was ignored. On August 18, 1965, Wheatley charged a Viet Cong battalion alone, running up a heavy slope under fire. His action spurred a South Vietnamese unit into action, and the Viet Cong were routed. In the same action, he saved the life of US Marine Jim Lowe, earning him one of the US military's top awards for bravery, the Silver Star. Loading Wheatley's wife, Edna, travelled with son George and other family members to Sydney for Wednesday's awards investiture. It was, perhaps, some compensation for the pain and disadvantage she suffered after her husband was killed. She was sacked from her job at a western Sydney RSL Club for 'making a fuss' and demanding that her husband's body be returned for burial in Australia. She won that battle: Wheatley's body was eventually brought home, and Australian military policy was altered to ensure Australia's war dead were thereafter returned home.
Sydney Morning Herald
7 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Sixty years after they died together, two soldiers awarded for gallantry
But the military downplayed other acts of astonishing courage by both Wheatley and by Swanton. Warrant Officer Swanton, when he was shot on November 13, 1965, was attempting to save the life of a wounded South Vietnamese soldier by carrying him across the paddy field, knowing he was exposing himself to enemy gunfire. It was a selfless act that led to his own death after Wheatley dragged him to cover. Yet a military officer dismissed Swanton's eligibility for a medal, declaring that 'whilst his actions could be described as 'courageous', these actions are what all service personnel are expected to perform in an attempt to preserve the life of a wounded comrade'. The appeals tribunal overturned that decision. Swanton's niece Chantal Swanton-Gallant flew from Queensland to accept the posthumous award. She and her son, Nicholas Swanton-Gallant, asked for privacy after the emotional and belated ceremony. They were joined by members of Wheatley's family after the awards investiture. Wheatley's Award for Gallantry was for two separate acts of great courage. The first was on May 28, 1965 – 60 years to the day before his Medal for Gallantry was finally awarded and presented to his son, who was just 11 when he died. Pinned down by gunfire in a shallow ditch in Quang Tri Province, Wheatley saw a terrified Vietnamese girl, aged about three, break away from her mother and run screaming down the road. Warrant Officer Second Class Wheatley, aged 28 and with four children of his own back in Australia, leapt from cover and, fully exposed to heavy gunfire, ran to the little girl, scooped her up in his arms and raced her to safety, shielding her with his own body. A recommendation for a 'Mention in Dispatches' was ignored. On August 18, 1965, Wheatley charged a Viet Cong battalion alone, running up a heavy slope under fire. His action spurred a South Vietnamese unit into action, and the Viet Cong were routed. In the same action, he saved the life of US Marine Jim Lowe, earning him one of the US military's top awards for bravery, the Silver Star. Loading Wheatley's wife, Edna, travelled with son George and other family members to Sydney for Wednesday's awards investiture. It was, perhaps, some compensation for the pain and disadvantage she suffered after her husband was killed. She was sacked from her job at a western Sydney RSL Club for 'making a fuss' and demanding that her husband's body be returned for burial in Australia. She won that battle: Wheatley's body was eventually brought home, and Australian military policy was altered to ensure Australia's war dead were thereafter returned home.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vietnam's strict new social media regulations strangle free speech, report says
BANGKOK (AP) — New government regulations on social media in Vietnam give authorities increased powers to prevent dissent and control the news, along with the tools to more easily track down critics and silence them, according to an analysis released Tuesday. Vietnam's authorities implemented 'Decree 147' in December, tightening regulations on social media companies like Facebook, X, YouTube and TikTok in a bid to further stifle criticism, said Ben Swanton, one of the authors of the report by The 88 Project, a group focused on human rights and free speech issues in Vietnam. 'Any challenge to the government and the Communist Party, any significant challenge to their official narrative of events, is perceived by them as a situation that is getting out of control,' he said in an interview from Thailand. Among other things, the decree requires users to verify their accounts with phone numbers or national ID cards that must be provided to the government upon request, and for the social media companies to store their data in Vietnam. It also prevents social media users from engaging in citizen journalism or posting information about suspected government wrongdoing, and requires companies to remove posts deemed illegal within 24 hours. The decree requires companies to allow authorities access to their internal search engines so that it can identify offending content. Social media companies have until late March to be in compliance, and it is not yet clear whether they will try to push back. TikTok and Facebook refused to comment on their plans, while X and Google, which owns YouTube, did not return emails. Already, however, researchers have noticed a decline in political posts, Swanton said. 'In the last several years Hanoi has imprisoned or forced into exile the country's most prominent independent journalists, reformers, human rights activists, and dissidents. This has had a chilling effect that encourages people to engage in self-censorship,' he said. 'Decree 147 is designed to turn this chilling effect into an icy stranglehold on free speech.' Vietnamese authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the Project 88 analysis or the intent behind the new decree. Authorities tighten the screws on critical reporting About 65 million Vietnamese have Facebook accounts, roughly two-thirds of the population, and some 35 million have YouTube accounts. About half of Vietnam's people say they get most of their news from social media. Already, the government frequently insists critical posts from outside the country be geo-blocked so they cannot be accessed inside Vietnam and it has moved quickly to censor posts it deems unacceptable, like a video of a top minister eating a gold-encrusted steak in London in 2021 while Vietnam was on COVID-19 lockdown. In October, a prominent Vietnamese blogger was sentenced to 12 years in prison for articles and videos exposing the corruption of government officials, and in January, a prominent Vietnamese lawyer was sentenced to three years in jail for Facebook posts criticizing the country's former top judge. Project 88 researchers said the new decree will also give authorities better tools to go after those who just read or watch social media posts as well. They noted a case last June in which police in one province went through the profiles of 13,328 members of a Facebook group that had information deemed 'hostile to the state' and identified 20 people in their province, went to their homes and demanded they leave the group. 'If implemented as intended, Decree 147 would likely make it less time consuming to identify members of groups like this and ensure that groups with anti-state content will be blocked in the country,' the report said. It urges social media companies and others affected to refuse to comply with provisions of the decree that violate free expression rights, and for the United States and United Nations to pressure Vietnam to repeal the measure.
Washington Post
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Vietnam's strict new social media regulations strangle free speech, report says
BANGKOK — New government regulations on social media in Vietnam give authorities increased powers to prevent dissent and control the news, along with the tools to more easily track down critics and silence them, according to an analysis released Tuesday . Vietnam's authorities implemented 'Decree 147' in December, tightening regulations on social media companies like Facebook, X, YouTube and TikTok in a bid to further stifle criticism, said Ben Swanton, one of the authors of the report by The 88 Project , a group focused on human rights and free speech issues in Vietnam. 'Any challenge to the government and the Communist Party, any significant challenge to their official narrative of events, is perceived by them as a situation that is getting out of control,' he said in an interview from Thailand. Among other things, the decree requires users to verify their accounts with phone numbers or national ID cards that must be provided to the government upon request, and for the social media companies to store their data in Vietnam. It also prevents social media users from engaging in citizen journalism or posting information about suspected government wrongdoing, and requires companies to remove posts deemed illegal within 24 hours. The decree requires companies to allow authorities access to their internal search engines so that it can identify offending content. Social media companies have until late March to be in compliance, and it is not yet clear whether they will try to push back. TikTok and Facebook refused to comment on their plans, while X and Google, which owns YouTube, did not return emails. Already, however, researchers have noticed a decline in political posts, Swanton said. 'In the last several years Hanoi has imprisoned or forced into exile the country's most prominent independent journalists, reformers, human rights activists, and dissidents. This has had a chilling effect that encourages people to engage in self-censorship,' he said. 'Decree 147 is designed to turn this chilling effect into an icy stranglehold on free speech.' Vietnamese authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the Project 88 analysis or the intent behind the new decree. About 65 million Vietnamese have Facebook accounts, roughly two-thirds of the population, and some 35 million have YouTube accounts. About half of Vietnam's people say they get most of their news from social media. Already, the government frequently insists critical posts from outside the country be geo-blocked so they cannot be accessed inside Vietnam and it has moved quickly to censor posts it deems unacceptable, like a video of a top minister eating a gold-encrusted steak in London in 2021 while Vietnam was on COVID-19 lockdown. In October, a prominent Vietnamese blogger was sentenced to 12 years in prison for articles and videos exposing the corruption of government officials, and in January, a prominent Vietnamese lawyer was sentenced to three years in jail for Facebook posts criticizing the country's former top judge. Project 88 researchers said the new decree will also give authorities better tools to go after those who just read or watch social media posts as well. They noted a case last June in which police in one province went through the profiles of 13,328 members of a Facebook group that had information deemed 'hostile to the state' and identified 20 people in their province, went to their homes and demanded they leave the group. 'If implemented as intended, Decree 147 would likely make it less time consuming to identify members of groups like this and ensure that groups with anti-state content will be blocked in the country,' the report said. It urges social media companies and others affected to refuse to comply with provisions of the decree that violate free expression rights, and for the United States and United Nations to pressure Vietnam to repeal the measure.
The Independent
18-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Vietnam's strict new social media regulations strangle free speech, report says
New government regulations on social media in Vietnam give authorities increased powers to prevent dissent and control the news, along with the tools to more easily track down critics and silence them, according to an analysis released Tuesday. Vietnam's authorities implemented 'Decree 147' in December, tightening regulations on social media companies like Facebook, X, YouTube and TikTok in a bid to further stifle criticism, said Ben Swanton, one of the authors of the report by The 88 Project, a group focused on human rights and free speech issues in Vietnam. 'Any challenge to the government and the Communist Party, any significant challenge to their official narrative of events, is perceived by them as a situation that is getting out of control,' he said in an interview from Thailand. Among other things, the decree requires users to verify their accounts with phone numbers or national ID cards that must be provided to the government upon request, and for the social media companies to store their data in Vietnam. It also prevents social media users from engaging in citizen journalism or posting information about suspected government wrongdoing, and requires companies to remove posts deemed illegal within 24 hours. The decree requires companies to allow authorities access to their internal search engines so that it can identify offending content. Social media companies have until late March to be in compliance, and it is not yet clear whether they will try to push back. TikTok and Facebook refused to comment on their plans, while X and Google, which owns YouTube, did not return emails. Already, however, researchers have noticed a decline in political posts, Swanton said. 'In the last several years Hanoi has imprisoned or forced into exile the country's most prominent independent journalists, reformers, human rights activists, and dissidents. This has had a chilling effect that encourages people to engage in self-censorship,' he said. 'Decree 147 is designed to turn this chilling effect into an icy stranglehold on free speech.' Vietnamese authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the Project 88 analysis or the intent behind the new decree. Authorities tighten the screws on critical reporting About 65 million Vietnamese have Facebook accounts, roughly two-thirds of the population, and some 35 million have YouTube accounts. About half of Vietnam's people say they get most of their news from social media. Already, the government frequently insists critical posts from outside the country be geo-blocked so they cannot be accessed inside Vietnam and it has moved quickly to censor posts it deems unacceptable, like a video of a top minister eating a gold-encrusted steak in London in 2021 while Vietnam was on COVID-19 lockdown. In October, a prominent Vietnamese blogger was sentenced to 12 years in prison for articles and videos exposing the corruption of government officials, and in January, a prominent Vietnamese lawyer was sentenced to three years in jail for Facebook posts criticizing the country's former top judge. Project 88 researchers said the new decree will also give authorities better tools to go after those who just read or watch social media posts as well. They noted a case last June in which police in one province went through the profiles of 13,328 members of a Facebook group that had information deemed 'hostile to the state' and identified 20 people in their province, went to their homes and demanded they leave the group. 'If implemented as intended, Decree 147 would likely make it less time consuming to identify members of groups like this and ensure that groups with anti-state content will be blocked in the country,' the report said. It urges social media companies and others affected to refuse to comply with provisions of the decree that violate free expression rights, and for the United States and United Nations to pressure Vietnam to repeal the measure.
