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11 April 2023- The Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) has recently announced that Luat Khoa Magazine will be participating in Amplify Asia,  an innovative coaching program aimed at building the business capacity of independent media outlets throughout South and Southeast Asia.

Since its inception in 2019, Amplify Asia has helped to enhance financial stability and promote training opportunities for participating media outlets, each specializing in their unique form of journalism from the aforementioned regions. With regards to this, MDIF Program Director, Tessa Piper, states,  “Building their [Amplify Asia participants] business capacity should have the dual function of enabling them to reach a wider audience while also strengthening their potential for financial sustainability.”

Regarding the Luat Khoa Magazine’s acceptance, MDIF has recognized the publication’s status of being “one of the very few independent media outlets focused on Vietnam,” a country that censors media content that the government deems too critical or subversive. They also state that despite operating from outside Vietnam, the publication is able to “ serve a Vietnamese audience interested in legal and political news by publishing high-quality long-form magazine articles.”

Amplify Asia is one of the many projects of the MDIF. Its inception dates back to 2019 and it was originally known as the Southeast Asia Technical Assistance Initiative (SEATAI). However, due to the expansion of the program to include Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, it was necessary to reevaluate the program’s objectives and align them with MDIF’s other regional Amplify programs. As a result, the program was revamped to better reflect its regional scope and goals. Financial investment into MDIF or the Amplify program itself is not a requirement for acceptance into the program.

Amplify Asia’s coaching program is a comprehensive initiative that goes beyond traditional training in business capacity and financial stability. One of its most unique features is its personalized coaching, which connects independent media outlets with senior regional media executives. These coaches work closely with participants to develop individualized capacity-building plans and other strategies tailored to their specific needs.  In addition to personalized coaching, Amplify Asia participants also have access to a network of regional specialists who can provide short-term assistance on a variety of topics. These specialists offer expertise in areas such as SEO optimization, web design, marketing training, and more. Likewise, participating media outlets that meet Amplify Asia’s criteria are also eligible for grants and seed equity investment.

This year, in response to the pervasive spread of mis- and disinformation across South and Southeast Asia, Amplify Asia has expanded its program by selecting seven additional independent media outlets to join alongside Luat Khoa Magazine. The inclusion of these outlets is aimed at further strengthening the fight against misinformation and amplifying credible news sources in the region. The inclusion of this new batch brings the total number of participants in Amplify Asia to 14, further bolstering the program’s efforts to combat misinformation and promote trustworthy journalism in South and Southeast Asia.

The Luat Khoa Magazine’s inclusion in Amplify Asia highlights the importance of supporting independent media outlets that fight for transparency and accountability in places where the government controls the prevailing narratives. By supporting the Luat Khoa and other news outlets like it, the MDIF and Amplify Asia help ensure that facts and truth remain accessible to those living in countries where freedom of press is limited.

On the night of November 17, 2022 the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), granted Legal Initiatives For Vietnam (LIV) co-founder, Pham Doan Trang, the 2022 International Press Freedom Award (IPFA) during its annual ceremony held in New York City. She shares the spotlight with three other awardees from Cuba, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Ukraine and all four were chosen for “[withstanding] immense challenges, including government crackdowns, aggression, and imprisonment to bring the public independent reporting amid rampant disinformation and war.”

CPJ President, Jodie Ginsberg, holds the IPFA awardees in high regard. She praises them and says, “Our award winners exemplify the best of journalism: work that shines a light on the impacts of war, corruption, and abuse of power on everyday lives.” She adds that the awardees “demonstrate the central role journalism plays in serving the public good.”

Before her arrest and imprisonment, LIV co-founder, Pham Doan Trang, was part of the main editorial bodies of independent Vietnamese media outlets, Luat Khoa and The Vietnamese Magazine.

On October 6, 2020 at around 11:30 pm, Hanoi police and state authorities raided Trangs’s apartment and arrested her. After a year of being held incommunicado and being denied the liberty to speak to her lawyers and her family, she was convicted in December 2021 at the conclusion of a one-day trial under Article 88 of Vietnam’s 1999 Penal Code for “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” Pham Doan Trang is currently serving a nine-year long sentence and joins the ranks of the growing number of Vietnamese journalists and dissidents who have been imprisoned for speaking out against the Vietnamese government.

Pham Doan Trang was unable to attend the ceremony and accept her award due to her imprisonment. She was presented onstage by CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez who used this opportunity to demand for her freedom. He says, “…Pham Doan Trang is serving a nine year sentence for the crime of spreading news against the state but the only crime here is her imprisonment. So, I want you to help us turn her story into a demand for her release.”

A mock newspaper, which also doubled as a petition to call for Pham Doan Trang’s release, was given to the ceremony attendees during the pre-dinner reception and post-dinner reception. Vietnam has released prisoners due to international outcry in the past, such as Nguyễn Văn Hải and Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, who is also known as “Mother Mushroom.” Both were released after receiving the IPFA in 2013 and 2018, respectively.

The Luật Khoa Magazine, one of the two main projects of Taiwan-based non-governmental organization Legal Initiatives for Vietnam (LIV), published its Taiwan Special issue on October 6, 2022. This marks the magazine’s second release within its new operating model. Each month, Luật Khoa will release a periodical that contains introductory and analytical articles about a chosen topic. These can range anywhere from political, social, or legal issues in Vietnam to areas of international concern that may provide insight or lessons that may aid in Vietnam’s democratization process.

This month’s release focuses on Taiwan. This small island nation is different, if not the direct opposite, of Vietnam’s neighbor, China. Similar to Vietnam, the people of Taiwan also lived under a dictatorship for some time. In fact, just a few decades ago, many Taiwanese citizens lived in constant fear from their government and could not freely express criticism or dissent both in public and in the sanctity of their own homes.

However, the Taiwan of today is drastically different from how they were in the past. The advent of democracy has led to a transformation within the Taiwanese people, government, and society. Taiwan currently stands as a bastion of a functioning democratic state and its citizens have also started to develop their own sense of identity, despite the constant threats to its freedom and sovereignty from its communist counterpart.

LIV and the Luật Khoa staff hope that the articles, stories, and words in this October publication will serve as a source of inspiration and hope to its Vietnamese audience and readers.

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Luật Khoa’s Taiwan Special Issue is written in Vietnamese and can be purchased here for 5 USD.

Legal Initiatives for Vietnam’s (LIV) collection of books, banned or restricted by the Vietnamese government, was featured by Radio Free Asia (RFA) in its April 29, 2022 article titled, “Thế hệ hậu chiến với nỗ lực bảo tồn và quảng bá sách thời Việt Nam Cộng Hoà.” RFA also spoke with LIV co-director, Trinh Huu Long, and a video recording of this interview has been uploaded on Youtube.

A significant number of these books were written before the collapse of the Republic of Vietnam, before the fall of Saigon city. Trinh Huu Long believes that, during this time, education under the Republic of Vietnam was “the most brilliant in Vietnamese history.” He adds that autonomy and liberal education were the two core values embedded in the educational system of that era.

In the interview, he also elaborates on why LIV is collecting and preserving these written works. Trinh Huu Long provides two reasons. The first is that these books are banned in Vietnam, making them very difficult for the general public to access. The second is that if these books continue to age and degrade, the knowledge and information contained within their pages will cease to exist.

Even though LIV’s collection is fairly broad, Trinh Huu Long states there are many other books, written under the Republic of Vietnam, that are not part of the LIV library. He adds that many of these remain scattered all over the world and it will take a significant amount of money and effort to purchase and preserve them.

As an active democracy activist, he believes that these books are essential in Vietnam’s process of democratization and that the study and analysis of these written works is necessary in order to prepare for a political reform in the country.

The LIV library is home to about 250 titles, written between 1955-1975 in Southern Vietnam, and includes works from famous Vietnamese authors such as Professor Nguyen Van Bong and the former Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam, Vu Van Mau. The books have also been digitized and are planned to be publicized in the future.

The library is located in the main office of LIV at the 4th Floor, RIIC Building, National Chengchi University, No. 64, Sec. 2, Zhinan Rd., Wenshan Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan (ROC) 116.