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Tag: In the Press

  • Pham Doan Trang in The Diplomat: Why the West Has Gone Soft on Human Rights in Vietnam

    The Diplomat surmises that countries aligned with the United States’ rivalry with China usually get off scot-free when it comes to their authoritarianism and human rights abuses.

    Excerpt:

    On Tuesday, the Vietnamese activist Pham Doan Trang was jailed by a Hanoi court to nine years in prison. It was “a searing indictment of everything that is wrong with authoritarian Vietnam today,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

    Trang, a prominent independent journalist, book publisher, and human rights defender, has been harassed by the communist authorities for years, briefly going into hiding in 2018. She was arrested by the police in October last year and charged with disseminating anti-state propaganda. State prosecutors had asked for Trang to be jailed for between seven and eight years, but the Hanoi People’s Court increased the sentence to nine years.

    Trang has been called the “most famous activist” in Vietnam. Her easy-to-read textbooks on political history, as well as her music and wider activism, especially on environmental issues, made her a key voice on social media. In 2019, Reporters Without Borders awarded her its Press Freedom Prize. She was also something of a key node between the disparate progressive camps, the link between pro-democracy urbanites, environmental campaigners, and rural land-rights activists.

    “This prison sentence is a giant middle finger from Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security to those in the United States and elsewhere who criticize Vietnam’s human rights record,” Bill Hayton, a former correspondent in Vietnam and now of Chatham House, told me. “The Vietnamese leadership knows that it can get away with jailing activists like Trang because Vietnam has become an important component of outside powers’ strategies in East and Southeast Asia.”

    Trang was detained in October last year on the same day officials from the United States and Vietnam met to discuss human rights and freedom of expression. That hasn’t been lost on many commentators, who accuse Western governments of doing next-to-nothing to confront Vietnam (now a close friend of the West because of its stance against Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea, as well as its  economic importance and key position in global supply chains) about its dire human rights record.

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  • Pham Doan Trang in CSW: Vietnamese activist sentence to nine years in prison

    CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas reacts to human rights defender Pham Doan Trang’s “outrageous” nine year sentence.  

    Title: Vietnamese activist sentence to nine years in prison
    Publish Date: December 15, 2021
    Publisher: CSW

    Excerpt:

    Vietnamese activist and journalist Pham Doan Trang has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

    She was convicted of anti-State propaganda under Article 88 of the Criminal Code at a one-day trial on 14 December.

    Trang’s mother and brother were allowed to enter the courthouse, but police stopped activists attending the trial, confining some to their homes. The harsh sentence of nine years is even longer than the prosecutors’ recommendation of seven to eight years.

    Pham Doan Trang was arrested on 7 October 2020 and was not permitted to meet with her lawyer until 19 October 2021. After a second visit, lawyer Mr Le Van Luan posted on his Facebook page that Trang had been examined for health problems following appeals made to authorities by her defence team, and that an ultrasound had revealed she had a small tumour. Her trial was initially scheduled to take place on 4 November 2021 but was postponed when the prosecutors in her case contracted COVID-19.

    In a letter published by online magazine The Vietnamese  on the day of the trial, Trang wrote: “only extremely foolish and heinous governments would try to extinguish it [pluralism] through repression and the imprisonment of dissidents, writers, journalists, social critics, and democracy and human rights activists”.

    Pham Doan Trang has a long history of peacefully advocating for freedom and human rights in Vietnam as an independent journalist, and the founder of an environmental rights group and several independent media outlets. In 2017, Trang and other writers produced a report on the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Vietnam. The report concludes that “no religions (Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hoa Hao Buddhism, Caodaism, Muslim, etc.) or beliefs can fully enjoy the right” to FoRB in Vietnam.

    CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: “This nine-year sentence is outrageous; Pham Doan Trang is being targeted for her work peacefully promoting social justice and human rights in Vietnam. We concur with the conclusion of the UN human rights experts that Trang is one of many victims of the Vietnamese authorities’ use of vaguely defined propaganda charges, which effectively criminalise the exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. We call on the Vietnamese authorities to drop all charges against Pham Doan Trang and to release her immediately and unconditionally. We further call on the government to release all those detained or imprisoned in retaliation for exercising their human rights or defending the rights of others, including the right to freedom of religion or belief. The US, EU, UK and other trade partners of Vietnam must raise this and similar cases directly with the government, and voice their support for Vietnamese human rights defenders both publicly and in private dialogues with the authorities.”

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  • Pham Doan Trang in Süddeutsche Zeitung: Bullied reporter who absolutely refuses to remain silent

    Luat Khoa and The Vietnamese co-founder Pham Doan Trang’s recent trial saw her charged with “anti-state propaganda” and is now facing 9 years in prison.  The internationally acclaimed author and journalist is a big sore to the Vietnamese authorities whose press freedom and human rights track record is very dismal, ranking 175th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ global press freedom rankings.

    Excerpt:

    Note:  Original texts in German.

    Pham Doan Trang has been messing with the autocratic unity party in Vietnam for 20 years – and is now paying for it with nine years in prison.

    Nothing had been heard or read from Pham Doan Trang, 43, for a year. The Vietnamese journalist and activist was arrested and detained at her home in Hoh Chi Minh City in October 2020, just hours after the annual US-Vietnam human rights dialogue ended. She was taken to Hanoi and placed in solitary confinement. A year later she was allowed to speak to her lawyer. A trial followed, about which little has leaked out in recent weeks, except for the charge: “propaganda against the state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 88 of the 1999 Criminal Code. She has now been sentenced to nine years in prison.

    Until her arrest, Pham Doan Trang wrote mostly about politics and social justice issues. In 2000 she started working for the early internet magazine VnExpres . She switched to web TV stations and wrote books, including ones about discrimination against homosexuals in Vietnam. She was the founder of the independent magazine Luat Khoa and an editor at The Vietnamese Magazine.

    Freedom of the press is particularly bad in Vietnam

    Her colleagues there set up a portrait page for Pham Doan Trang shortly after her arrest. There she tells about her youth. “I borrowed my friends’ songbooks to copy the Beatles , in bad English and with even worse grammar… But that’s how I grew up – with the Beatles.” She studied international economics and discovered the internet. “We didn’t have many books back then, and our reality didn’t correspond to the books anyway,” she says of the online development of her political consciousness. “For the more diligent among us, foreign economic articles – either in other languages ​​or translated into Vietnamese – were an excellent source of information.”

    According to the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, Vietnam, with at least 23 media workers in prison, is one of the countries in which the most reporters are imprisoned. Vietnam ranks 175th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ global press freedom rankings. Pham Doan Trang has been repeatedly beaten, kidnapped, arrested and placed under house arrest in recent years. She was injured so badly that she is limping and using crutches after an operation.

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  • Pham Doan Trang in The Diplomat: Why the West Has Gone Soft on Human Rights in Vietnam

    The 9-year prison charges against journalist, author and human rights defender Pham Doan Trang made Vietnam’s total disregard for human rights more glaring than ever.  The “change through trade” which supposedly gives Western governments inside track on leveraging for human rights has not been utilized at all.

    Excerpt:

    On Tuesday, the Vietnamese activist Pham Doan Trang was jailed by a Hanoi court to nine years in prison. It was “a searing indictment of everything that is wrong with authoritarian Vietnam today,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

    Trang, a prominent independent journalist, book publisher, and human rights defender, has been harassed by the communist authorities for years, briefly going into hiding in 2018. She was arrested by the police in October last year and charged with disseminating anti-state propaganda. State prosecutors had asked for Trang to be jailed for between seven and eight years, but the Hanoi People’s Court increased the sentence to nine years.

    Trang has been called the “most famous activist” in Vietnam. Her easy-to-read textbooks on political history, as well as her music and wider activism, especially on environmental issues, made her a key voice on social media. In 2019, Reporters Without Borders awarded her its Press Freedom Prize. She was also something of a key node between the disparate progressive camps, the link between pro-democracy urbanites, environmental campaigners, and rural land-rights activists.

    “This prison sentence is a giant middle finger from Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security to those in the United States and elsewhere who criticize Vietnam’s human rights record,” Bill Hayton, a former correspondent in Vietnam and now of Chatham House, told me. “The Vietnamese leadership knows that it can get away with jailing activists like Trang because Vietnam has become an important component of outside powers’ strategies in East and Southeast Asia.”

    Trang was detained in October last year on the same day officials from the United States and Vietnam met to discuss human rights and freedom of expression. That hasn’t been lost on many commentators, who accuse Western governments of doing next-to-nothing to confront Vietnam (now a close friend of the West because of its stance against Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea, as well as its  economic importance and key position in global supply chains) about its dire human rights record.

    The implicit claim many Western governments have made is that as they trade more with Vietnam, and make Hanoi increasingly dependent on economic links to free societies, they gain additional leverage to pressure the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) into purposeful political reform. But so-called “change through trade” hasn’t worked. As Western trade with Vietnam has increased, political rights in Vietnam have deteriorated. A report published by Amnesty International in late 2020 asserted that around 170 prisoners of conscience are currently detained in Vietnam, a record high in recent history. The 88 Project asserts that there are now 217 activists in prison, and another 306 at risk. Freedom House, in its latest survey of political rights across the world, downgraded Vietnam’s score to 19 out of 100, the second-worst in Southeast Asia, after also-communist Laos.

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    Why the West Has Gone Soft on Human Rights in Vietnam The Diplomat
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  • Pham Doan Trang in Article 19 – Vietnam: Campaign against independent voices barrels forward

    Vietnamese authorities regularly use the Penal Code to punish human rights defenders, independent journalists and writers, and others exercising their right to freedom of expression.  Article 19 calls on the immediate release of the 3 leading human rights defenders, including Pham Doan Trang, and for Vietnam to amend its Penal Code in order to make it compliant with international law.

    Excerpt:

    The conviction of three leading Vietnamese human rights defenders in relation to their online advocacy signals the continuation of the Vietnamese government’s repressive campaign against independent voices, said ARTICLE 19. Vietnamese authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Pham Doan Trang, Trinh Ba Phuong, Nguyen Thi Tam, and all other arbitrarily detained human rights defenders.

    “These three convictions are unacceptable acts of reprisal against courageous rights defenders and part of a nefarious campaign to silence and intimidate anyone who speaks out against government abuse,” said Matthew Bugher, ARTICLE 19’s Head of Asia Programme. “The Vietnamese government is clearly allergic to criticism and routinely reacts by jailing independent journalists and others who use social media to document and disseminate information about its failures.”

    On 14 December 2021, the Hanoi People’s Court convicted Pham Doan Trang under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code, which criminalises the ‘making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.’ The court sentenced her to nine years’ imprisonment.

    In a statement released ahead of her trial, Pham Doan Trang wrote, ‘The longer the prison sentence, the more demonstrable the authoritarian, undemocratic, and anti-democratic nature of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.’

    Authorities arrested Pham Doan Trang on 7 October 2020, less than a month after five UN Human Rights experts raised concerns about the harassment of independent writers and journalists in Vietnam, including against Pham Doan Trang. She was held incommunicado for over a year before being allowed to meet with her lawyer on 19 October 2021. Court documents indicate that she was targeted for writing about human right issues and meeting with foreign journalists.

    In September 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Pham Doan Trang’s detention was arbitrary. In October eight UN human rights experts, including members of the Working Group, noted that she was ‘only the latest victim of the authorities’ use of vaguely defined propaganda charges to persecute writers, journalists and human rights defenders, criminalising the exercise of their right to freedom of opinion and expression to share information.’

    Ahead of the original date for her trial in November, ARTICLE 19 and 27 other human rights and freedom of expression organisations released a statement calling for the Vietnamese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release and drop all charges against her.

    International human rights experts have repeatedly called on Vietnam to amend its Penal Code in order to make it compliant with international law. In 2019, the UN Human Rights Committee called on Vietnam to revise vague and broadly formulated legislation and to end violations of the right to freedom of expression offline and online ‘as a matter of urgency.’ In early 2021, four UN Special Rapporteurs stated that Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code is ‘overly broad and appears to be aimed at silencing those who seek to exercise their human right to freely express their views and share information with others.’

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  • Pham Doan Trang in Le Monde News: Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang sentenced to nine years in prison

    Multi-awarded journalist and human rights defender Pham Doan Trang gets a harsh conviction for writing “anti-state propaganda.” Her lawyer said that she refused to “confess” for crimes that she believes she did not commit.  

    Pham Doan Trang  is known for her peaceful means to advocate her causes.  

    Excerpt:

    Note: Original texts in French.

    Rewarded abroad by several prizes crowning her fight for freedom of expression, the writer and blogger was accused of “anti-state propaganda” and statements “prejudicial” to social stability.

    Nine years in prison for “crimes” of writing and “anti-state propaganda”  : this is the harsh sentence to which the famous Vietnamese journalist and blogger Pham Doan Trang was sentenced on Tuesday, December 14. Aged 43, the young woman was accused by the Hanoi regime of “defaming the government of Vietnam and inventing false news” .

    The fact of having granted interviews in the past to the BBC and to Radio Free Asia, a media financed by the United States Congress, probably aggravated his case: whereas a sentence of seven to eight years had been requested against her, the judges imposed an even heavier sentence on the journalist, on the pretext that her statements were “prejudicial” to the stability of Vietnamese society.

    The blogger refused to plead guilty

    Arrested in October 2020 after being placed under house arrest for many months in her Hanoi residence, the blogger refused to plead guilty and will no doubt appeal. Her lawyer, Ngo Anh Tuan, wrote on her Facebook page on Monday that Trang told her on October 19, during her first meeting with one of her defenders since her incarceration, that she had always refused to “confess” to her. during the dozen interrogations that were inflicted on him.

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  • Pham Doan Trang in Union of Catholic Asian News: Vietnam jails its most famous human rights activist

    UCA discloses how Pham Doan Trang is a “woman of freedom” and summarizes her works on defending human rights and freedom in Vietnam.

    Excerpt:

    Well-known human rights activist and dissident journalist Pham Doan Trang has been sentenced to nine years in jail for “conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”

    The People’s Court of Hanoi City on Dec. 14 convicted her on charges that included giving interviews to foreign newspapers and publishing reports on marine pollution and religious violations in Vietnam.

    Trang, who won the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Prize for Impact in 2019, was arrested in October 2020 in Ho Chi Minh City, just a few hours after the annual human rights dialogue between the United States and Vietnam.

    The activist is the founder of Luatkhoa.org, an online magazine that specializes in providing legal information. Before her arrest, she was an editor of Thevietnamese.org, which assists Vietnamese citizens to defend their rights in the communist-run country.

    Lawyer Mieng said during a meeting with the lawyers at the No. 1 Prison before the trial, Trang told him that she always prays for the nation and all people to be in love, good health and peace although she does not follow any religion. She sent her warm regards to other activists and friends.

    Pham Thanh Nghien, a rights activist and Trang’s close friend, said she was sentenced to nine years in prison for daring to speak up for freedom and truth.

    “Those who have dared to commit themselves to freedom are always liberals even in prison. Pham Doan Trang is always a woman of freedom,” Nghien said.

    Trang reportedly told the jury that the longer the sentence, the more they prove the dictatorial and anti-democratic nature of the Vietnam government.

    “You can put me in jail and crow that you have erased a thorn in your eyes, but you will never be able to erase the bad reputation, dictatorship and anti-democracy. As beasts are forever animals, they can never become human,” she said.

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  • Pham Doan Trang in CNN: Dissident journalist jailed in Vietnam for 9 years for ‘anti-state’ acts

    CNN outlines the trial of Pham Doan Trang, citing her legal team’s statement on the 9 year conviction as “severe.”  International human rights organization finds the verdict unacceptable.

    Excerpt:

    A court in Vietnam jailed a journalist and prominent dissident for nine years on Tuesday for anti-state activities, her lawyers and state media said, in a case that attracted the attention of international human rights groups.

    Pham Doan Trang, who published material widely on human rights and alleged police brutality in Vietnam, was convicted of “conducting propaganda against the state” by a Hanoi court, according to her legal team and state-controlled media.

    Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and tolerates little criticism.

    Calls to the court seeking confirmation of the verdict went unanswered on Tuesday.

    “It was such a long sentence, close to the maximum term for such activities,” said one of her lawyers, Nguyen Van Mieng, adding that Trang did not plead guilty at the trial and they would meet later to discuss a possible appeal.

    Trang, 43, was detained hours after an annual US-Vietnam human rights dialogue in October last year, an arrest the US embassy said could impact freedom of expression.

    Dang Dinh Manh, another member of her legal team, said the nine-year sentence was severe.

    “The sentence is too long. The judges insisted that Trang’s activities were dangerous for society and for the administration,” Manh said.

    Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, called the verdict an unacceptable sentence for a brave woman who only spoke her mind.

    “The imprisonment of such a committed reformer dedicated to promoting human rights, good governance and justice is a searing indictment of everything that is wrong with authoritarian Vietnam today,” he said.

    “In a democratic society, Trang’s prolific ideas and writings would be admired and extolled rather than criminalized.”

    In May 2016, police detained and prevented Trang from attending a meeting with then-US President Barack Obama, who had invited her to join him at an activists’ forum.

    Two years later, she was detained after meeting with a European delegation that was preparing for an annual EU-Vietnam human rights dialogue.

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    Dissident journalist Pham Doan Trang jailed in Vietnam for 9 years for anti state acts CNN
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  • Pham Doan Trang in Voice of America: Tense One-Day Trial Ends in 9-Year Sentence for Vietnamese Journalist

    VOA spoke to the lawyer of Pham Doan Trang after a nine-year sentence was handed down to the Vietnamese author and journalist by a Hanoi court.

    Excerpt:

    The award-winning journalist was convicted of “spreading anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. The charge has been criticized by her lawyer Dang Dinh Manh and international rights organizations, who say Trang is being penalized for her work.

    “We believe what Trang has done was merely exercising the right to freedom of speech,” said Manh, one of five lawyers who defended the 43-year-old journalist.

    He added that the charge contradicts provisions in Vietnam’s constitution that protect free speech.

    The lawyer told VOA the Hanoi People’s Court judges maintained that Trang’s behavior was “dangerous to the society and the administration.”

    Manh added that in an unusual move, the court handed down a prison term longer than requested by the prosecution.

    Manh said that Trang was frequently interrupted when addressing the court.

    The journalist, who was arrested in October 2020, pleaded not guilty.

    “We believe that the conviction of Trang does not have enough of a legal basis,” said Manh.

    Trang’s family has protested the sentence. Her brother, Nguyen Chinh Truc, who attended the trial with their 81-year-old mother, told VOA he raised objections at the hearing.

    International reaction

    The United States and other governments, along with international rights groups, have condemned the conviction of Trang, who is known for her reports on human rights and legal issues affecting Vietnamese.

    In a statement released Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Trang “did nothing more than peacefully express her opinions.”

    He called on Vietnam to release the journalist “who has been recognized internationally for her work to advance human rights and good governance in Vietnam.”

    Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic also voiced concern at the sentencing.

    Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to VOA’s request for comment on Trang’s case and the international condemnation of her conviction.

    The ministry spokesperson has previously said that only criminals are imprisoned in Vietnam.

    Trang is one of at least 23 journalists in jail for their work as of December, according to data by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

    In 2019, Trang was honored with the prize for impact by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

    The watchdog criticized her sentencing and is campaigning to have Trang released.

    “This is political justice carried out on the ruling party’s orders with the sole aim of punishing a journalist just for trying to inform her fellow citizens,” Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, said in a statement.

    “We urge the international community to impose targeted sanctions on the Vietnamese officials responsible for Pham Doan Trang’s unacceptable fate, in order to obtain her immediate release,” he added.

    Before becoming an advocate for democracy and human rights in Vietnam, Trang worked for state-owned newspapers.

    She founded the online law and human rights magazine Luat Khoa and has authored several books that authorities banned from publication.

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  • Pham Doan Trang in Radio Free Asia: Vietnamese independent journalist Pham Doan Trang is jailed for 9 years

    Trang had called for democracy and good governance in Vietnam, and had spoken with Radio Free Asia and the BBC.

    Excerpt:

    A court in Vietnam has sentenced an independent Vietnamese journalist and activist to nine years in prison following her conviction on a charge of “carrying out propaganda” against the state, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

    Pham Doan Trang, who has won multiple foreign awards for her writing, was sentenced Tuesday at the Hanoi People’s Court, with trial judges handing down a sentence longer than the prison term requested by prosecutors, defense attorney Dang Dinh Manh told RFA.

    “The trial’s atmosphere was pretty tense,” said Manh. “But finally the panel of judges came out and pronounced a sentence of nine years’ imprisonment, which was higher than that proposed by the Procuracy.”

    “They had called only for a seven- or eight-year jail term,” Manh said, adding that the judges in announcing their verdict said that Trang’s actions had been harmful to society, and had therefore called for a harsher sentence.

    The judges had based their decision only on the arguments and information provided by prosecutors and had rejected all arguments presented by lawyers working in Trang’s defense, Manh said.

    “The verdict surprised us, and we think that Pham Doan Trang will certainly appeal against it.”

    The U.S. State Department on Tuesday condemned the conviction and sentencing of Trang, saying she had done nothing more in her writings than peacefully express her opinions.

    “We note as well the recent opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which found Trang’s detention to be arbitrary and in contravention of Vietnam’s international human rights commitments and obligations,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.

    “The United States calls on the Vietnamese government to release Trang, who has been recognized internationally for her work to advance human rights and good governance in Vietnam, and to allow all individuals in Vietnam to express their views freely and without fear of retaliation,” Price said.

    Writing on Monday on his Facebook page, defense lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan said that in a meeting with Trang on Oct. 19 — her first meeting with lawyers after her arrest — Trang said she had refused during 10 periods of interrogation to confess to the charges against her.

    “In some of these sessions, investigators also asked her if she would be willing to leave Vietnam and live in a foreign country if it seemed she would be sentenced during her trial to many years in prison,” Tuan said, adding that Trang had refused to consider such a move.

    “She said she would never be willing to be a ‘commodity’ to be exchanged with a foreign government,” he said.

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