18-9-2012
On
September 12, 2012 the Office of the Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, issued an
administrative order of sanction - file number 7169 - accusing “Danlambao” of
“publishing information that is false, fabricated and untruthful to slander the
leadership of the nation, to agitate the people against the Party and the
State, to cause doubts and create bad publicity reducing the people’s trust in
the state leadership”. The Order also directs the Ministry of Public Security
and the Ministry of Information Communication and Media to focus on
investigations, and strictly discipline any organizations, groups or
individuals who affiliate or in contact with Danlambao.
This accusation is nothing new and
expected by Danlambao. We are awaiting to see how the Ministry of Public
Security, together with the Ministry of Information Communication and Media
would utilize their army of staff and the state’s powerful machinery, funded by
our people’s tax money, to lawfully, transparently and publically prove on
state-controlled media all the accusations contained in the Prime Minister’s
Order no. 7169.
However, this administrative order
also directs all ministries, state agencies, local officials, and public
servants “not to read, to use, to spread nor to disseminate any information
from Danlambao...” This particular order is a direct violation of the freedom
of expression enshrined in our constitution and a violation of the
international human rights convention that Vietnam is a signatory member. All
public officials, Ministries’ staff members, and public servants, first of all
are citizens of Vietnam, and secondly are the people’s representatives within
the system. In order to fulfil efficiently and effectively their public duties,
all state members must be entitled to the rights to access and assess freely
all multi-dimensional information about the state and its system of which they
are a component. These rights would enable them to recognize which criticism or
proposal is right so that they could correct and improve in the public
interests. After all, it is their public duty to listen to the people and their
aspirations.
Danlambao does not accept and will
not succumb to any state order aimed at muffling our mouth, blindfolding our eyes,
and deafening our ears. No government or any political party in power has the
right to choose and to decide for the people what information they can read,
listen and exchange. Therefore Danlambao will continue to provide information
and multi-dimensional views of all the people, and to create a forum where it
is our readers who will report news, and inform and represent their own
perspectives, and be heard over matters of concern which affect their daily
lives. As readers and also citizen reporters, we at Danlambao, will not
continue to allow our own opinion and thoughts to be “filtered”, “distorted”,
“replaced”, “dripped” or “blocked” by any “sieve”, “sifter”, “net”, “funnel”,
“megaphone” or “mouthpiece” or “gag order” of the State. That is the commitment
from our community members of news blog, Danlambao, to each other.
Danlambao does not side with any
faction within the Party nor allows ourselves to be influenced by any “foreign”
or “hostile” forces -as accused in the Prime Minister’s order-. In choosing
“which side” to represent, Danlambao decides to stand with the people.
Danlambao chooses the public interests to guide its editorial philosophy. And
it is in the best interests of our nation that Danlambao operates and
establishes its guiding principles. We do not condone any group of political
elite or power to influence or control Danlambao. It is the nation that we
serve, not any political party. This is Danlambao’s second commitment to our
readership.
Since the gag order 7169, which was
publically broadcasted on state-controlled television and other state media in
Vietnam, the number of pageviews on our news blog has soared to 500,000
pageviews the following day. In response to this apparent failure to threaten
people to stop accessing and reading Danlambao, the authorities increased
maximum firewalls in all regions and at all times. This measure succeeded in
bringing down the number of pageviews back to 280,000 on average per day.
In the coming days, Danlambao is
calling upon all our contributors, readers, news gatherers and supporters to
continue sending a clear message to the Prime Minister that we are committed to
our mission for freedom of expression and will not allow the State to abuse
their power to deprive us of our human right by each of us:
- introducing a new friend to our
community collective news blog, Danlambao.
- helping someone who does not yet
know how to circumvent firewall.
- posting a positive and
constructive comment to encourage others to hope for the best of our nation.
- scribbling the address of our
blogspot <danlambaovn.blogspot.com>
on dollar bills (so that it can be exchanged and reaches other potential
readers far and wide across our country).
- writing it on any walls,
back-alleys or corner of the streets.
- drawing our Danlambao symbols:
white pigeon (for peace) and green heart (for love) on tables at coffee shops,
restaurants, public walls, sidewalks etc.
Together, we affirm that Danlambao
is yours. Danlambao is ours. And together WE will walk the challenging journey
with other free, independent journalists and bloggers to bring the truth and
uncensored news with integrity and credibility to all.
Danlambao Editorial Team
Related Links:
http://danlambaovn.blogspot.com/2012/09/cam-ket-cua-danlambao-gui-en-cac-ban.html
- .UFd_XRhhNBp (in Vietnamese)
_____________________________
Bức thư này được Dân Làm Báo gửi đến một số các cơ
quan truyền thông ngoại quốc.
Mời các bạn bấm vào đây để đọc bản
tiếng Việt:
_____________________________
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