Latest news with #TruongHuySan
New York Times
28-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Vietnamese Journalist Gets 2 ½ Years in Prison for Facebook Posts
A court in Vietnam sentenced one of the country's most influential journalists to two and a half years in prison Thursday for 'abusing democratic freedoms' with about a dozen posts on Facebook that criticized or questioned the government. The journalist, Truong Huy San — known to many by his pen name, Huy Duc — was arrested in Hanoi, the capital, in June. He was convicted under the criminal code for 13 articles he posted on his personal Facebook page between 2015 and 2024 that, according to state-run media, 'negatively impacted state interests, as well as the legal rights of organizations and individuals.' Mr. San's family was not allowed into the courtroom. Mr. San's case has been closely watched by international human rights groups and journalists, in part to better understand the direction of a rising regional power and one-party state that has often signaled it wants to be seen as more open to the world and innovation — while frequently cracking down on speech and civil society organizations. At least one of the posts from Mr. San that led to the charges involved arguments against heavy-handed policing. A screenshot of a deleted post from Mr. San last year that was preserved by the 88 Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that focuses on human rights issues in Vietnam, declared: 'A COUNTRY CANNOT DEVELOP BASED ON FEAR.' By that point, his Facebook page had around 370,000 followers. Shawn Crispin, the senior Southeast Asia representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Mr. San 'was convicted and sentenced for gathering and publishing independent news, which Vietnam treats as a criminal offense.' 'San and all independent journalists wrongfully held behind bars in Vietnam should be freed immediately and unconditionally,' Mr. Crispin said. Vietnam currently has at least 16 reporters in custody, according to CPJ's latest global prison census — many of them held for posting on social media, which the government has tried to strictly regulate. Vietnam is the seventh worst jailer of journalists worldwide, based on the CPJ tally, tied with Iran and Eritrea. According to state media, Mr. San, 63, told the authorities he did not intend to oppose the Communist Party or the state, but admitted that some content infringed upon the state's interests 'for which he said he was 'very sorry.'' Mr. San grew up in a staunch revolutionary family, on a state-run collective farm in central Vietnam, where he has said he excelled more at math than at literature. In 10th grade, he volunteered for the Vietnamese army, calling in strikes with an artillery unit during a brutal border war with China that began in 1979. Later, as a military journalist, he went on to cover Vietnam's war against the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Starting in the late '80s, he was known as a corruption-busting investigative reporter for Ho Chi Minh City's popular newspaper, Tuoi Tre, where he often broke news with help from his military connections. His reporting frequently challenged Vietnam's political culture during a period of fierce internal policy debates between conservatives and reformists. There was more openness to diverging voices then, he later said, and in 2005, he left Vietnam to study at the University of Maryland on a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship, which connects people addressing critical global challenges. When he returned to Vietnam in 2006, he started a blog that became popular for its social and political commentaries. The Vietnamese authorities shut it down in 2010. His achievements also included a year at Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship in 2012. While there, he finished writing a two-volume book, 'The Winning Side,' a journalistic tour de force that quickly became the definitive account of Vietnamese history and politics from around the end of the war in 1975 through the '90s. Officially, the book is banned in Vietnam. But it has also been widely read, online and in hard copies passed among friends. Mr. San has said that he was simply hoping the book, as with his other writing, would provide an honest account of the country's complex dynamics. 'All it does is try to relate what happened after 1975 and to explain why it happened the way that it did,' Ms. San said in an interview in 2013. 'That's all. I try not to accuse anyone of anything.' In recent years, he had moved his commentary to Facebook. Many of his friends, in posts there this week, expressed gratitude that his sentence was not longer. Some promised to brew the best homemade liquor possible to celebrate when he is released.
Bloomberg
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Vietnam Court Jails Journalist for 30 Months Over Facebook Posts
A Vietnam court has sentenced independent journalist Truong Huy San to 30 months in prison for posting articles on Facebook that were critical of the government. San — also known as Huy Duc — was convicted by a Hanoi court of 'abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state,' according to a post on the government's news website.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vietnam jails former journalist for 30 months over Facebook posts
(Reuters) - A court in Vietnam on Thursday sentenced a former journalist to 30 months in prison after finding him guilty of "abusing democratic freedoms" for posts on social media, state media reported. Truong Huy San, 63, whose pen name is Huy Duc, was convicted for posting 13 articles on Facebook which caused "a negative impact on social order and safety", state-run Vietnam News Agency said in a report. The report said San pleaded guilty at the trial. Reuters could not immediately reach his lawyers for comment. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Despite sweeping economic reforms and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and tolerates little criticism. San, who was arrested in June last year, is a former soldier and the author of "The Winning Side," a book about postwar Vietnam which is banned in the the trial, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and PEN America had all called on the government to release San. "When an author and journalist like Truong Huy San is silenced, it's not just his voice that is stifled. It's the right of an entire society to seek truth and accountability," PEN America research and advocacy manager Anh-Thu Vo said in a statement two weeks ago.
Al Jazeera
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Vietnam court jails journalist Huy Duc for 30 months over Facebook posts
A leading independent journalist and book author from Vietnam has been sentenced to 30 months in jail over Facebook posts critical of the government. Following a trial that lasted only for a few hours, a court in the capital Hanoi convicted 63-year-old Huy Duc of 'abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state' through posting 13 articles on Facebook. 'These articles have a large number of interactions, comments and shares, causing negative impacts on social order and safety,' the indictment quoted by Vietnam News Agency read. Huy Duc worked for influential state-run newspapers before authoring one of Vietnam's most popular blogs and Facebook accounts, where he criticised the country's communist leaders on issues such as corruption, media control and relations with China. Huy Duc, whose real name is Truong Huy San, is a former senior army lieutenant. He was fired from a state news outlet in 2009 for criticising past actions by Vietnam's former communist ally, the Soviet Union. In 2012, Huy Duc spent a year at Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship. During his time abroad, his account of life in Vietnam after the end of the war with the United States, The Winning Side, was published. His conviction comes just a few months after blogger Duong Van Thai was jailed for 12 years on charges of publishing antistate information. He had almost 120,000 followers on YouTube where he regularly recorded livestreams critical of the government. In January, a prominent former lawyer was also jailed for three years over Facebook posts. Shortly before his arrest in June, Huy Duc took aim online at Vietnam's new powerful leader To Lam, as well as his predecessor Nguyen Phu Trong. It is unclear if the charges were related to these particular posts. Vietnam, a one-party state, has no free media and clamps down hard on any dissent. It is one of the world's top jailers of journalists, according to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom campaign group. RSF said previously that his articles were 'an invaluable source of information enabling the Vietnamese public to access censored information by the Hanoi regime'. Rights campaigners say the government has in recent years intensified its crackdown on civil society. In December, Vietnam enacted new online rules requiring Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities. Under 'Decree 147', all tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify user accounts by phone number or Vietnamese identification numbers and store that information alongside their full name and date of birth.
