Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Vietnam government for the immediate release of journalist Pham Doan Trang, and stop imprisoning independent news reporters for their work.
- Title: Nine-year sentence for prominent journalist Pham Doan Trang reaffirms Vietnam’s ‘abysmal’ press freedom record
- Publish Date: December 15, 2021
- Publisher: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Excerpt:
In a one-day trial yesterday, Hanoi’s People’s Court sentenced Trang to nine years in prison under Article 117 of the penal code, a provision that bars “making, storing, distributing or spreading” news or information against the state, international news reports said. She did not plead guilty and will consider an appeal, Reuters reported, citing one of her lawyers.
Trang, who has been detained since October 2020, reports widely on human rights-related issues, including cases of police abuse; she founded the local legal magazine Luat Khoa and edits and writes for the independent English-language news site The Vietnamese, according to news reports and CPJ research.
“Pham Doan Trang’s harsh sentencing on bogus anti-state charges reaffirms Vietnam’s abysmal record as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Trang should be released immediately and unconditionally, and be allowed to resume her work as a journalist without fear of reprisal.”
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