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Tag: The Vietnamese

  • Pham Doan Trang in Voice of America: Rights Groups Deplore Arrest of Vietnam Writer and Activist Pham Doan Trang

    Several human rights groups voiced their dismay over the arrest of Luat Khoa and The Vietnamese co-founder, Pham Doan Trang just hours after annual U.S.-Vietnam human rights talks.  Human Rights Watch calls the arrest a “scorched earth response” to political dissent in the country.

    Excerpt:

    Outspoken Vietnamese democracy activist and author Pham Doan Trang has been arrested on anti-state propaganda charges, police and state media said Wednesday, as rights groups condemned her apprehension just hours after annual U.S.-Vietnam human rights talks and warned that the blogger faced the risk of torture in custody.

    Pham Doan Trang was arrested at an apartment in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday night and charged under article 117 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, accused of “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” To An Xo, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security, said. Trang, described by state media as a blogger who used to work for various publications in Vietnam, was transferred to Hanoi.

    If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison, Amnesty International said, warning that she faced serious danger in official custody.

    “Pham Dan Trang faces an imminent risk of torture and other-ill treatment at the hands of the Vietnamese authorities. She must be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns, Ming Yu Hah, in a statement.

    “The arrest of Pham Doan Trang is reprehensible. She is a leading figure in the struggle for human rights in Viet Nam. She has inspired countless young activists to speak up for a more just, inclusive, and free Vietnam,” said Hah.

    ‘Scorched earth response’

    Human Rights Watch noted that her arrest occurred “just a few hours after the annual human rights dialogue between the United States and Vietnam” and that she was immediately charged.

    “Vietnam’s scorched earth response to political dissent is on display for all to see with the arrest of prominent blogger and author Pham Doan Trang,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

    “Every day she spends behind bars is a grave injustice that violates Vietnam’s international human rights commitments and brings dishonor to the government,” he said in a statement.

    “Governments around the world and the UN must prioritize her case, speak out loudly and consistently on her behalf, and demand her immediate and unconditional release,” added Robertson.

    Rachael Chen, spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, said the mission was concerned about the reported arrest and “monitoring the situation closely.”

    “We urge the Vietnamese government to ensure its actions and laws are consistent with Vietnam’s international obligations and commitments,” she said in an e-mailed comment.

    “Authors, bloggers, and journalists often do their work at great risk, and it is the duty of governments and citizens worldwide to speak out for their protection,” said Chen.

    Spate of arrests

    Following Trang’s arrest, her friends posted a message they said was written by her in advance, that read: “Nobody wants to go to jail, but if prison is the place for those who fight for freedom, and if it is the place to carry out set goals, then we should go to prison.”

    Human Rights Watch noted that last month Trang had published the third edition of a report of a violent clash at Dong Tam commune outside Hanoi in January. The publication of the first edition of that report one week after the incident led to the arrest in June three out of five authors of the report, Can Thi Theu and her sons Trinh Ba Phuong and Trinh Ba Tu. They were also charged with for anti-state propaganda.

    Amid a spate of arrests and abuse of independent journalists this year in Vietnam, Trang told RFA in May that toleration of dissent was deteriorating and likely to get worse in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party congress in January.

    “Freedom has always been restricted, but nowadays it seems to be narrower, and there’s more and more violence,” she said at the time. “From now until the party congress, the scope of freedom can be tightened more and more, and the suppression will increase.”

    Trang, who released a well-regarded book titled Politics for Everyone, was awarded the Reporters Without Borders 2019 Press Freedom Prize. She founded the online legal magazine Luat Khoa and edits another web-based rights journal called thevietnamese.

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  • Pham Doan Trang in CPJ: Journalist Pham Doan Trang arrested on anti-state charges in Vietnam

    The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Vietnamese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release journalist Pham Doan Trang and drop anti-state charges against her.

    Excerpt:

    Trang, a prominent journalist who contributes regularly to several independent news sites, was arrested just before midnight yesterday in Ho Chi Minh City, according to news reports.

    She was charged with “propaganda against the State” under Article 117 of the penal code, according to a statement posted on the Ministry of Public Security’s website today. Convictions under Article 117 carry maximum jail terms of 20 years. Vietnam has detained and threatened several journalists under the charge in recent months, as CPJ has documented.

    “Authorities should immediately release journalist Pham Doan Trang, drop the charges against her, and cease their decade-long campaign of harassing her,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Vietnam must stop treating independent journalists like criminals.”

    CPJ could not independently verify where Trang was being detained and under what conditions.

    Reuters reported that Trang was arrested just hours after an annual U.S.-Vietnam human rights dialogue meeting was concluded.

    Trang, who reports widely on human rights-related issues including cases of police abuse, founded the local Luat Khoa legal magazine and edits and writes for the independent English-language The Vietnamese news site, according to news reports.

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    Journalist Pham Doan Trang arrested on anti state charges in Vietnam Committee to Protect Journalists
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  • Pham Doan Trang in PEN America: Freedom to Write Index 2020

    Pham Doan Trang in PEN America: Freedom to Write Index 2020

    11 writers from Vietnam are placed in the Writers at Risk Database.  One of them is Luật Khoa’s co-founder and The Vietnamese co-editor Pham Doan Trang.  Apart from her involvement with the online magazines, promoting human rights and the rule of law, she is also known as an author and independent publisher of several books on human rights and democracy.  

    Excerpt:

    In Vietnam, the number of detained writers jumped from 8 in 2019 to 11 in 2020. During 2020, Vietnamese authorities ramped up their targeting of individuals associated with professional literary and writing organizations. This included multiple arrests of writers associated with the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), a civil society organization that advocates for press freedom consisting of writers, bloggers, and journalists. The IJAVN’s founding member and chairman Pham Chi Dung was detained in November 2019 and spent the entirety of 2020 behind bars,150 while several other core members of the IJAVN were detained or imprisoned during 2020, including three leading members of the association—Le Huu Minh Tuan, Pham Chi Thanh, and Nguyen Tuong Thuy—who were arrested and detained in May 2020. Pham Chi Thanh remains in pretrial detention as of this writing, while the other three have received prison sentences of over a decade each.151

    In October 2020, authorities detained and arrested internationally recognized author and blogger Pham Doan Trang, hours after the conclusion of the 2020 U.S.-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue.152 A prolific author and leading member of independent Vietnamese-language publications, Trang is also the cofounder of the Liberal Publishing House, Vietnam’s only independent publishing house, from which she was forced to disassociate herself in July, after the Ministry of Public Security labeled her works “anti-state propaganda.”153 As a prominent figure who has written extensively on voting rights, her arrest appears to be part of a broader crackdown on free expression ahead of the 13th National Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP).154

    “No one wants to sit in prison. But if prison is inevitable for freedom fighters, if prison can serve a pre-determined purpose, then we should happily accept it.”

    Pham Doan Trang, “Just In Case I Am Imprisoned”

    All five of these Vietnamese writers and public intellectuals were charged under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, which criminalizes “making, storing, disseminating documents and materials for an anti-State purpose.”

    💡
    More information on Writers at Risk Database. 

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    Freedom to write index 2020 FINAL
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  • Pham Doan Trang in Wired: One Free Press Coalition Spotlights Journalists Under Attack

    Luat Khoa and The Vietnamese editor Pham Doan Trang is part of One Free Press Coalition’s 10 “Most Urgent” press freedom cases this March 2020.  The coalition of press and media companies hopes to use their collective voices to give awareness, strike conversations and “stand up for journalists under attack for pursuing the truth.”

    Excerpt:

    IN MAY 2019, WIRED joined the One Free Press Coalition, a united group of preeminent editors and publishers using their global reach and social platforms to spotlight journalists under attack worldwide. Today, the coalition is issuing its eighth monthly “10 Most Urgent” list of journalists whose press freedoms are being suppressed or whose cases demand justice.

    Here’s March 2020’s list, ranked in order of urgency:

    8. Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam)
    Journalist in hiding to evade arrest continues reporting.
    Phan Doan Trang has been in hiding since August 2018, after Ho Chi Minh City police brutally beat her and confiscated her national ID card, on top of silencing measures including interrogation, monitoring and shutting off her internet and electricity. A colleague reports that Trang, cofounder of The Vietnamese and Luat Khoa news publications, has not fully recuperated from the assault and her health has deteriorated. While moving between safe houses, she has continued critical reporting on the environment, freedom of religion and online civil society.

    The One Free Press Coalition is comprised of over 30 prominent international members including: Al Jazeera Media Network; AméricaEconomía; The Associated Press; Bloomberg News; The Boston Globe; BuzzFeed; CNN Money Switzerland; Corriere Della Sera; De Standaard; Deutsche Welle; Estadão; EURACTIV; The Financial Times; Forbes; Fortune; HuffPost; India Today; Insider Inc.; Le Temps; Middle East Broadcasting Networks; NHK; Office of Cuba Broadcasting; Quartz; Radio Free Asia; Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty; Republik; Reuters; The Straits Times; Süddeutsche Zeitung; TIME; TV Azteca; Voice of America; The Washington Post; WIRED; Yahoo News.

    One Free Press Coalition partners with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) to identify the most urgent cases for the list, which is updated and published on the first business day of every month.

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    One Free Press Coalition Spotlights Journalists Under Attack March 2020 WIRED
    One Free Press Coalition Spotlights Journalists Under Attack – March 2020 _ WIRED.pdf
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  • Pham Doan Trang in Forbes: One Free Press Coalition Marks One Year Anniversary Advocating For Journalists Whose Freedoms Are Being Threatened

    One Free Press Coalition is a united group of 38 distinguished media brands using their global reach and platforms to spotlight journalists under attack worldwide.  Pham Doan Trang, co-founder of Luat Khoa and The Vietnamese, is listed as one of the “most urgent” press freedom cases that need to be addressed immediately.

    Excerpt:

    The One Free Press Coalition, a united group of 38 pre-eminent media brands using their global reach and platforms to spotlight journalists under attack worldwide, today observed its one-year anniversary of the organization’s inception. To date, the Coalition has played an important role in successfully advocating for 50 individuals, supporting in the release of 10 journalists featured on their monthly “10 Most Urgent” lists, most recently Sophia Xueqin Huang, who was released from prison in January after being jailed while covering the extended unrest in Hong Kong.

    By bringing attention to this, the One Free Press Coalition has sparked critical conversations globally, with more than 19,000 mentions of the initiative on social media, totaling 1.17 billion total potential impressions globally.

    “In the one year since we established the One Free Press Coalition, we have used the collective voices of our partners and members to shine a bright light on journalists worldwide whose press freedoms and personal liberties are under assault,” said Randall Lane, Chief Content Officer, Forbes and Founding Member of the One Free Press. “We’re proud to have played a role in bringing attention to the plights of 56 journalists – whose cases we highlighted in our monthly ‘10 Most Urgent’ list – as we continue to fight for and secure justice. A free press is a vital and indispensable institution to the proper functioning of society everywhere.”

    Published this morning at www.onefreepresscoalition.com and by all Coalition members, including new pledge Agencia EFE, the 13th 10 Most Urgent list includes the following journalists, ranked in order of urgency:

    8. Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam)

    Journalist in hiding to evade arrest continues reporting.

    Phan Doan Trang has been in hiding since August 2018, after Ho Chi Minh City police brutally beat her and confiscated her national ID card, on top of silencing measures including interrogation, monitoring and shutting off her internet and electricity. A colleague reports that Trang, cofounder of The Vietnamese and Luat Khoa news publications, has not fully recuperated from the assault and her health has deteriorated. While moving between safe houses, she has continued critical reporting on the environment, freedom of religion and online civil society.

  • Pham Doan Trang in Time: These Are the 10 ‘Most Urgent’ Threats to Press Freedom in March 2020

    Time Magazine has joined in the call to prioritize the “10 Most Urgent” press freedom cases.  Pham Doan Trang, co-founder of The Vietnamese and Luat Khoa is one of the 10 international journalists under attack.

    Excerpt:

    This month, Chen is on One Free Press Coalition’s list which highlights the 10 “most urgent” cases of threats to press freedom across the world.

    Read about all 10 journalists under attack on the March list here:

    8. Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam): Journalist in hiding to evade arrest continues reporting.

    Phan Doan Trang has been in hiding since August 2018, after Ho Chi Minh City police brutally beat her and confiscated her national ID card, on top of silencing measures including interrogation, monitoring and shutting off her internet and electricity. A colleague reports that Trang, cofounder of The Vietnamese and Luat Khoa news publications, has not fully recuperated from the assault and her health has deteriorated. While moving between safe houses, she has continued critical reporting on the environment, freedom of religion and online civil society.

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    10 Most Urgent Threats to Press Freedom in March 2020 Time
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  • Pham Doan Trang in Fortune: 10 journalists who deserve justice immediately

    Pham Doan Trang, co-founder of The Vietnamese and Luat Khoa magazines, is listed as one of the 10 international journalists, whose press freedom case is classified as “Most Urgent” by the One Free Press Coalition.

    Excerpt:

    The last thing journalists seek when they go behind the scenes of a story is to end up behind bars. But for many reporters, harsh interrogation, wrongful arrest, and brutal assault are all possible realities of doing one’s job.

    Even today, as the world is in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China, journalists who have reported on the situation have been punished for doing so. Chen Qiushi, a video journalist who revealed that hospitals in China were struggling to deal with the virus, has not been seen since Feb. 6. Meanwhile, three other journalists, who wrote an opinion piece regarding the crisis, have been expelled by the Chinese government.

    When it comes to fighting a virus that has threatened public health, caused profits to plummet, and hit global markets hard, cracking down on free press does nothing to address the crisis at hand and only puts more people’s lives at risk. That’s only one of the reasons why Fortune remains committed to fighting for fellow journalists—and why publishing this monthly list of the “10 Most Urgent” press freedom cases is a moral imperative.

    The One Free Press Coalition (OFPC) compiles the list (below), in partnership with the Center for Press Justice (CPJ) and the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). This month marks one year of these organizations’ efforts to circulate their list. While some journalists have received justice since appearing on these lists, other cases remain unresolved, and new cases continue to arise. (You can read last month’s list here.)

    8. Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam)

    Journalist in hiding to evade arrest continues reporting.
    Phan Doan Trang has been in hiding since August 2018, after Ho Chi Minh City police brutally beat her and confiscated her national ID card, on top of silencing measures including interrogation, monitoring and shutting off her internet and electricity. A colleague reports that Trang, cofounder of The Vietnamese and Luat Khoa news publications, has not fully recuperated from the assault and her health has deteriorated. While moving between safe houses, she has continued critical reporting on the environment, freedom of religion and online civil society.

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    10 journalists who deserve justice OFPC March 2020 Fortune
    10 journalists who deserve justice (OFPC)_ March 2020 _ Fortune.pdf
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  • LIV’s Trinh Huu Long and Pham Doan Trang in Journal of Democracy: Thirtieth Anniversary of Polish Democracy

    Legal Initiatives for VIETNAM co-director Trinh Huu Long accepted Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Prize for Impact in behalf of Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang, who has been served with travel restrictions.

    Excerpt:

    Reporters Without Borders Prize

    On September 12, Reporters Without Borders awarded its Press Freedom Prize for Impact to Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang. Trang is the editor of the online human-rights magazine The Vietnamese, and founder of the online magazine Luat Khoa. Trang has been repeatedly beaten and imprisoned for her activism. Trinh Huu Long, Trang’s coeditor at Luat Khoa, accepted the award on her behalf when travel restrictions prevented Trang from attending the ceremony in Berlin. Speaking via video, Trang said, “We will fight until journalism is no longer seen as a crime anywhere in the world.”

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    News and Notes Journal of Democracy
    News and Notes _ Journal of Democracy.pdf
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  • LIV on Qurium Vi Tran: “We Are Trying To Help People That Want Political Pluralism In Vietnam”

    Legal Initiatives for VIETNAM co-director Vi Tran recalls why she stopped working as a lawyer in California to pursue activism for her motherland, Vietnam. Her works including as co-founders for 2 online magazines, Luật khoa and The Vietnamese- where she is an editor-in-chief, revolves around her mission that is “To speak up for those that can’t”.

    Excerpt:

    She stopped working as a lawyer in California five years ago and started volunteering with a group of human rights in Vietnam to advocate for a democratic movement in the country. Vi Tran co-founded the independent magazine Luat Khoa in 2014 and, in 2017, the newspaper The Vietnamese , where she is editor-in-chief. Her mission: “To speak up for those that can’t”.

    Vi Tran does not regret leaving her job in California and moving to Taiwan. A lot of people, including her own family, she says, don’t see things this way: “They may think that I am crazy, but there is one life to live”. Vi thinks that the Vietnamese people deserves a better regime: “I believe all Vietnamese should have their human rights respected”.

    According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Vietnam is the 6th most censored country on the world, with 11 journalists imprisoned. Reporters Without Borders states that in Vietnam “all media follow the Communist Party’s orders”. The only source of independently-reported information is bloggers and citizen-journalists, who are being subjected to persecution and prison.

    “I admire the bloggers who went to jail to keep their faith and belief in free press and freedom of expression”, Vi says. Pham Doan Trang, Luat Khoa’s co-founder, was also detained in February 2018 and now she lives at an undisclosed location. Except for her, the writers and editors of Luat Khoa and The Vietnamese have not been persecuted. Vi assures that her team takes security very seriously: “We could relocate our colleagues if we think they face danger”.

    But Luat Khoa and The Vietnamese have suffered another types of persecution: the websites are blocked in Vietnam since December 2017, one month after the birth of The Vietnamese. Vi suspects that was “because we attempted to get more publications in English, to give international readers about Vietnam, so the government blocked us”.

    Why are Luat Khoa and The Vietnamese so uncomfortable to the government? Luat Khoa is the “Law Magazine”, it talks about law, geopolitics, human rights and so and is written in Vietnamese. It has about ten regular writers, and five part-time writers that work in The Vietnamese as well. Some of them (30%) are lawyers and 80% live in Vietnam.

    “We are trying to help people that want political pluralism in Vietnam”

    Protests in Vietnam. June 10, 2018

    The Vietnamese is different from Luat Khoa. It is written in English and it acts on the basis that information about Vietnam is rather limited, foreigners often look into things that were produced by state-owned media. Vi says: “We needed to have an English site, to share with our international friends what is going on in Vietnam and give people a better idea of our movement”. The intention is “to educate people online via a website”.

    According to Vi, Vietnam is “an authoritarian regime that controls every single aspect of people’s life; there is no open Internet, it is under government control, so people are wanting the information”. There are revolutionary and oppositional forces in Vietnam, people that want to see changes, that want political pluralism. “We are trying to help them”, she says.

    Because of her current health problems, Vi Tran lives in California again. But she still works for The Vietnamese: “I am so grateful to be able to bring my compatriots stories to a larger stage and advocate for their rights”, she says. And adds: “I have tremendous love for my country and my people, no matter how far away I live away from them”.

    “Government blocks us but people want to access our information and find a way”.

    Hers is a matter of pure patriotic vision: “I have seen a lot of courageous people from Vietnam keep fighting for our human rights and civil rights, and I want to join them to push our democracy forwards”. For her, living to contribute to her country is no regrets: “I will continue to advocate and fight for Vietnam’s democracy until the day I pass away”.

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    Vi Tran We are trying to help people that want political pluralism in Vietnam Qurium Media Foundation
    Vi Tran_ “We are trying to help people that want political pluralism in Vietnam” – Qurium Media Foundation.pdf
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  • LIV’s Trinh Huu Long and Pham Doan Trang in BBC Vietnamese Giải Tự do Báo chí: Phạm Đoan Trang đấu tranh bằng ngòi bút

    Trinh Huu Long co-founder of Luật Khoa Magazine and The Vietnamese received the 2019 Press Freedom award by Reporters Without Borders in behalf of colleague Pham Doan Trang.  According to him, the Prize for Impact made Ms. Pham not only a journalist but also a democracy activist who uses her pen to help change the political rule in Vietnam.

    Excerpt:

    Note:  Original texts in Vietnamese.

    With Pham Doan Trang being awarded the 2019 Freedom of the Press award, it is hoped that domestic authorities will “reduce the intensity of their repression against the individual”, lawyer Trinh Huu Long told the BBC.

    A freelance journalist, blogger, and a well-known democracy fighter in Vietnam has just been awarded the 2019 Press Freedom award by Reporters Without Borders, in the Influence category.

    Representing journalist Pham Doan Trang at the award ceremony was Mr. Trinh Huu Long, who co-founded two websites of Luat Khoa Magazine and The Vietnamese with Ms. Doan Trang.

    “We hope that by being more known to the world [through this award], and more recognized by the world for the efforts of independent Vietnamese journalists, the Vietnamese government will reduce the intensity of the violence. pressure on Pham Doan Trang personally and the community of Vietnamese independent journalists as well as Vietnamese activists,” Mr. Trinh Huu Long said from Berlin.

    “We hope that international pressure will help gradually improve the Vietnamese government’s attitude, behavior and policies towards independent journalists,” added Mr. Trinh Huu Long.

    This event made her “not only a journalist but also a democracy activist,” said Trinh Huu Long.

    “Pham Doan Trang tries to use the most popular language, to explain in the most understandable way the seemingly abstract concepts, difficult to understand about democracy, human rights, the rule of law, the rights people have.”

    She wants to “use her pen to wish to change the political regime in Vietnam”, Mr. Trinh Huu Long added.

    Download article in Vietnamese:

    Giai Tu do Bao chi Pham oan Trang au tranh bang ngoi but BBC News Tieng Viet
    Giải Tự do Báo chí_ Phạm Đoan Trang đấu tranh bằng ngòi bút – BBC News Tiếng Việt.pdf
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    Download article in English:

    Press Freedom Prize Pham Doan Trang struggles with pen BBC News Vietnamese
    Press Freedom Prize_ Pham Doan Trang struggles with pen – BBC News Vietnamese.pdf
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