Huy Duc labored for influential state-run newspapers earlier than authoring a preferred weblog essential of nation’s leaders.
A number one unbiased journalist and guide creator from Vietnam has been sentenced to 30 months in jail over Fb posts essential of the federal government.
Following a trial that lasted just for a couple of hours, a court docket within the capital Hanoi convicted 63-year-old Huy Duc of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the pursuits of the state” by means of posting 13 articles on Fb.
“These articles have numerous interactions, feedback and shares, inflicting unfavorable impacts on social order and security,” the indictment quoted by Vietnam Information Company learn.
Huy Duc labored for influential state-run newspapers earlier than authoring considered one of Vietnam’s hottest blogs and Fb accounts, the place he criticised the nation’s communist leaders on points corresponding to corruption, media management and relations with China.
Huy Duc, whose actual title is Truong Huy San, is a former senior military lieutenant.
He was fired from a state information outlet in 2009 for criticising previous actions by Vietnam’s former communist ally, the Soviet Union.
In 2012, Huy Duc spent a yr at Harvard College on a Nieman Fellowship.
Throughout his time overseas, his account of life in Vietnam after the top of the conflict with the US, The Profitable Facet, was printed.
His conviction comes only a few months after blogger Duong Van Thai was jailed for 12 years on fees of publishing antistate info.
He had nearly 120,000 followers on YouTube the place he repeatedly recorded livestreams essential of the federal government.
In January, a distinguished former lawyer was additionally jailed for 3 years over Fb posts.
Shortly earlier than his arrest in June, Huy Duc took goal on-line at Vietnam’s new highly effective chief To Lam, in addition to his predecessor Nguyen Phu Trong. It’s unclear if the fees have been associated to those specific posts.
Vietnam, a one-party state, has no free media and clamps down laborious on any dissent. It is among the world’s prime jailers of journalists, in response to the Reporters With out Borders (RSF) press freedom marketing campaign group.
RSF mentioned beforehand that his articles have been “a useful supply of data enabling the Vietnamese public to entry censored info by the Hanoi regime”.
Rights campaigners say the federal government has lately intensified its crackdown on civil society.
In December, Vietnam enacted new online rules requiring Fb and TikTok to confirm consumer identities and hand over knowledge to authorities.
Beneath “Decree 147”, all tech giants working in Vietnam should confirm consumer accounts by cellphone quantity or Vietnamese identification numbers and retailer that info alongside their full title and date of start.
