Chronology of Blogging Movement in Vietnam
Updated
December 31, 2013
2003-2004
2003: Golden days for Talawas (talawas.de), a website founded in 2001 whose
founder is Phạm Thị Hoài, a Vietnamese writer in Germany.
End
2003: iCMS, the software product that won the first
prize in the Vietnam Intelligence Contest 2003, is found to commit piracy by
copying and localizing an international open source software without tribute.
The case leads to an ebullient discussion around the topic on Dương Vi Khoa’s
Informatics Forum (ddth.com), attracting much attention of the IT community.
2004: On the same occasion, the Informatics Forum sets up box X-café,
administered by YunaAdmirer, to discuss social issues. The box will later be
expanded to other areas such as history, politics, domestic and foreign policy.
Many members join the discussions, but at the same time, many others protest
for two major reasons. First, political-socio issues go beyond the spectrum of
attention of the forum. Second, sensitive topics discussed in box X-café may
get ddth.com involved and closed down.
2005
2005: Yahoo! 360° came to Vietnam after officially launched on June 24th in
the US.
September
13: Following Dương Vi Khoa’s decision to close box
X-café, which unofficial sources attribute to an order by public security
offices, old members of X-café open another, independent forum, X-cafévn.org.
Its philosophy is “To respect the difference”, aimed at encouraging open
dialogues on political-socio topics.
2006-2008
2006-2008: Yahoo! 360°'s boom years, the dawn of a whole new world of Internet
media. Vietnamese net users write, photograph, share files, and get connected
with each other. A generation of “net-writers” forms as fiction authors write
chick-lit (chicken literature) including novel, short stories, feuilleton, and
post their works to blogs everyday. Prominent figures included Trần Thu Trang,
Trang Hạ, Hà Kin, Nick D… Most of them are women in their 20s, and most of them
stay away from politics, only focusing on their chick-lit works.
Some bloggers try to increase page views by
publishing titillation entries and photos, as well as contents related to
celebrities: Cô Gái Đồ Long (The Dragon-killing Lady), Only You, Vàng Anh.
There are also a few political bloggers, but none of
them are famous yet: Vàng Anh (mainly known for sex-related entries and
thrillers), Người Buôn Gió (Wind Trader), Anh Ba Sàm (a former public security
officer).
August
25, 2007: The Paracel Data Center (hoangsa.org) is founded.
Blogger Hà Kin launches her book, “New York Love
Stories”, a typical “net fiction” that tells love stories of a Vietnamese young
girl in New York City.
September
9, 2007: The Yahoo! 360° of Anh Ba Sàm is set up.
September
19, 2007: Điếu Cày establishes the Free Journalists Network
(FJVN). Founders include Điếu Cày, Lê Xuân Lập, Huy Cường, Vũ Quốc Tú (aka.
blogger Uyên Vũ), and Ngô Thanh Tú (blogger Thiên Sầu). Tạ Phong Tần (owner of
the blog Công lý & Sự thật [Justice and Truth]), Phan Thanh Hải (aka.
blogger AnhbaSG) join later. From September 2007 to October 2010, when AnhbaSG
is detained, there are 421 articles published on this blog, of which 94
articles are written by members of FJVN, and 327 quoted from other sources such
as VOA, RFA, the 8406 bloc, Dân Luận, Thông Luận, Người Việt Online, etc.
October
12, 2007: Sex scandal “Vàng Anh” (Vietnamese for canary or
oriole) breaks out when a five-minute video tape filming sexual intercourse of
Hoàng Thùy Linh, the teen star featuring the female protagonist in TV serial
drama “Vàng Anh’s Diary”, is posted to Youtube and, before removed, spreads
over Internet at a variety of webpages such as cafechieu, sex9x, etc.
On the evening of October 14th, a whole TV show is
devoted by VTV3 to the filmmakers for their “apologies to audience.” On early
October 16, another video tape whose length reaches 16 minutes is disseminated
on web. On October 25th, four students are arrested for “disseminating
debauched cultural products.”
Tắc Kè (Gecko) is the first blog to post the video
tapes and “behind-the-curtain” stories related to their protagonists, including
the son of a public security officer. Second to Tắc Kè is Vàng Anh, whose nick
is named after the female protagonist in the serial drama “Vàng Anh’s Diary.”
With their “philosophy” of blogging being “sex, politics and thrillers”, Tắc Kè
and Vàng Anh are the two hot bloggers in the period 2007-2008.
Sunday, December 9, 2007: First protests by bloggers
in Hanoi and Saigon opposing China’s ratification of a plan to set up “Sansha
City” to administer the Spratly and Paracel islands. These are also first
people's demonstrations in the communist Vietnam.
X-café is one of the forums that actively involve in
reporting on these anti-China protests in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Its
members are also present in these protests.
While the police may not arrest any protester during
their rallies, repression begins right afterwards: All bloggers who prove to be
“influential” face harassment.
Late 2007, journalist Huy Đức begins to publish his
high-impact articles on the Sài Gòn Tiếp Thị (Saigon Marketing) newspaper and
his personal blog, Osin, simultaneously.
2008
February
1: The first X-café magazine is introduced.
April
9: Members of “The Saigon party cell”, including many
veteran members of X-café since its times on ddth.com, are summoned by public
security officers for interrogation around their X-cafevn.org membership and
their articles “defaming the Party and the State, creating a frisson of fear
among the society.” They are forced to undertake that they will renounce X-cafevn.org.
April
19: Blogger Điếu Cày is arrested. He will later be
sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison for “tax evasion”.
April
29: Youths protested at the Olympic Torch Relay in
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The scope of the protests was rather small.
Early
November: News about the “great project” of bauxite mining in
Tây Nguyên (Central Highland of Vietnam) begins to spread on both mainstream
media and in the blogosphere. Some intellectuals and pundits make the first
petition urging a review of the whole project.
November
28: Admin Tqvn2004 publishes the declaration of
“Goodbye to anti-communist extremists” on X-cafevn.org. The declaration is
criticized by many veteran members of the forum. Consequently, it is removed
and Tqvn2004 resigns himself from admin of X-cafevn.org.
2009
January
14: VietNamNet publishes a letter from General Võ
Nguyên Giáp to Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, dated January 5, regarding the
Chinese bauxite mining project in the Central Highlands. He would subsequently
send two more letters – one dated April 9, 2009, to the National Seminar on the
Bauxite Mining Project, the other dated May 20, 2009, to the Politburo,
National Assembly and Government. The degree of his alerts increased over time:
from requesting for a review of the project, to advising not to conduct the
project, to finally suggesting that the entire project, including any test
phases, be canceled.
January
22: Dân Luận is founded in pursuit of a civil press,
whose guideline is observing “neutrality, rationality, and pluralism.” Dân Luận
shares the same server with X-cafevn.org.
March: A new political Yahoo! 360° blog, “Change We Need”, becomes famous by
directly attacking the bauxite mining project.
This blog provided readers with unverifiable
information about the government and its relations with Chinese counterparts.
“The Tay Nguyen bauxite mining project: a grave the Vietnamese communist regime
digs for itself,” it said.
May
24: Trần Huỳnh Duy Thức, CEO of the One-Connection IT
company, is arrested.
Mid-2009: Professor Nguyễn Huệ Chi, elementary school teacher Phạm Toàn, and Dr.
Nguyễn Thế Hùng set up a website critical of the bauxite mining project
(http://bauxitevn.info). It was hacked and subjected to denial of service
attacks hundreds of times.
June
11: Lawyer/Activist Cù Huy Hà Vũ filed a lawsuit
against Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng for signing the Decision no. 167/2007 in
approval of the Tây Nguyên bauxite mining project.
June
13: Lawyer Lê Công Định is arrested. It turned out that
Thức and Định were behind “Change We Need.”
June
18: Blog Free Lê Công Định
(freelecongdinh.wordpress.com) is introduced.
July
13: Yahoo! 360° is closed down permanently. The
community of bloggers in Vietnam splits up. Some automatically move to Yahoo!
360° Plus. Others choose Wordpress, Blogger, Multiply, Weblog, etc.
Following the closedown of Yahoo! 360°, Facebook
soon emerges as the most popular social network. Anh Ba Sàm’s blog becomes a
hot “meeting point” for those who pay attention to politics. He calls his blog
“Thông Tấn Xã Vỉa Hè” or “The Sidewalk News Agency”, mocking Vietnam News
Agency. (Sidewalk news is Vietnamese slang for “gossip”, “canards” or
“unverifiable information” that people tell each other when they are fooling
away their time at sidewalk cafes).
Many new blogs on politics were created in 2009-2010
as a result of the closing of Yahoo! 360°: Quê Choa (http://quechoa.info),
Trương Duy Nhất (http://truongduynhat.vn), Nguyễn Xuân Diện, etc. Quê Choa is
the blog of Nguyễn Quang Lập, a fiction writer and scriptwriter, whose
humourous, even vulgar style was very popular with audience. Trương Duy Nhất is
a mainstream reporter, who declared that he quit professional journalism to
focus only on blogging as a free man. Nguyễn Xuân Diện, Ph.D., is a researcher
on Vietnam’s ca trù (a Vietnamese folk song genre). Huy Đức's blog Osin is
attacked and closed down as of February 5, 2010.
August
27: Người Buôn Gió is detained. Phạm Đoan Trang is
detained on the following day, and then Mẹ Nấm a few days later. The three were
released respectively after a nine-day detention.
Around
September: Facebook is blocked for the first time. Facebookers
pass on to each other the guidelines of how to bypass firewall.
Late
December: The second blockade of Facebook, which is much more
fierce.
2010
January
20: X-cafevn.org and Dân Luận are subjected to denial
of service attacks for the first time, coinciding with the court of four
political dissidents: Lê Công Định, Nguyễn Tiến Trung, Trần Huỳnh Duy Thức and
Lê Thăng Long, accused of “carrying out activities to overthrow the people’s
administration” under Article 79 of the Penal Code.
February
28: Hacker group Sinh Tử Lệnh penetrates X-cafevn.org
and Dân Luận, stealing private registrations of members and posting them to web
at sinhtulenh.org. While this group has previously attacked and damaged
“left-sided” blogs and websites, this is the first time they appear under the
alias Sinh Tử Lệnh (the Command of Life and Death).
August
23: Danlambao is founded. Danlambao means Dân Làm Báo,
“citizens do journalism,” as opposed to state-owned media.
At the same time, Freelecongdinh (the forerunner of
Danlambao), Thư viện Hà Sĩ Phu, Thông Luận, Tiền Vệ, X-Cafe, Talawas are all
attacked by hackers to become inaccessible.
October
18: Blogger AnhbaSG (jurist Phan Thanh Hải) is
arrested, just one day before Điếu Cày completes his prison term. Subsequently
Điếu Cày remains in detention under the new charge of “spreading propaganda
against the state.” One year later, the third active member of FJVN, blogger Tạ
Phong Tần, is arrested on September 5, 2011.
October
26: “Social blogger” Cô Gái Đồ Long, also known as
journalist Lê Nguyễn Hương Trà, is arrested for having posted an entry
“defaming” a public security officer, General Nguyễn Khánh Toàn, and accused of
committing libel.
November
3: Talawas closes down after nine years of operation.
November
5: Legal scholar/ activist Cù Huy Hà Vũ is arrested in
a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City in an apparent ambush by policemen. The arrest
triggers a war for public opinion between the official media and alternative
media begins. Such battles would continue in all other events of the
democracy-human rights movements in the following years which revolve around
demonstrations, victims of land grabs, trials against dissidents and bloggers,
etc.
2011
April
4: First trial of Cù Huy Hà Vũ. Four months later, on
August 2nd, an appeal court will confirm Vũ's sentence of 7 years imprisonment
for “disseminating anti-state propaganda”.
April
26: Nguyễn Anh Tuấn (born 1990), a student at the
National Academy of Public Administration, sends a “confession” to the Supreme
People's Procuratorate, requesting to be charged with “conducting propaganda
against the state” as was Cù Huy Hà Vũ, for he has also stored “documents with
contents against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
His request is not resolved and the authorities fail
to issue any official decision on the case, but Tuấn was summoned for
interrogations and investigation. On May 19, he publishes an open letter,
saying “it's a tragedy for nations where good wills is only one-sided – from
the people.”
May
26: Chinese maritime surveillance vessels cut seismic
exploration cables of PetroVietnam’s Bình Minh 2 (Dawn 2) vessel in Vietnam’s
exclusive economic zone. A burst of anger spreads on the Internet, including
the blogosphere and Facebook. The Nhật Ký Yêu Nước (Dairy of Patriotism, a
Facebook page created on April 12, 2010, officially launched on April 16, 2010)
called for protests against China.
Sunday,
June 5: Protests broke out in both Hanoi and Saigon. Nguyễn
Xuân Diện and Anh Ba Sàm (now known as Ba Sàm) emerge as prominent rallying
points for protesters. Both blogs are regularly hacked and attacked, arguably
by both Vietnamese internet police (red guards) as well as Chinese hackers.
Whereas Ba Sàm just quoted sources from both mainstream and unmainstream media,
adding some satiric comments, Nguyễn Xuân Diện seemed to have “overstepped” by
posting even the calls for protests, advertising the place and time to rally.
It is said this may be part of the reason why Diện has always been in trouble
with policemen and in danger of arrest anytime, while Ba Sàm was apparently
safe.
Once-famous bloggers Hà Kin, Trang Hạ, Trần Thu
Trang, Nick D… are not much heard of now. They keep writing, but there have
also been many new faces in chick-lit; thus it looks more difficult now for
them to win the hearts of readers. Moreover, when Vietnam is undergoing
economic recession, books on such subjects as imaginary romance, home and
family, etc. would possibly become less attractive. (This does not necessarily
mean that audience will rush to political news and stories instead).
June
9: Chinese fishing boats damaged seismic exploration
cables of Viking II, another PetroVietnam vessel.
June
12: Protests in Ho Chi Minh City are suppressed
brutally. Photos circulate on Internet showing plainclothes policemen knocking
down young protesters on the streets of Saigon.
At the same time, police suppression escalates in
both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Protesters are intimidated, harassed and
isolated. Some are dismissed from their job under police pressure. State-owned
media and cyber troops launch massive campaigns against protesters who claim
they just peacefully exercise their right to freedom of expression.
June
19: Third Sunday of protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh
City. This was the last “bloggers' protest” in Ho Chi Minh City. In Hanoi,
protests continued each Sunday until August 21st, when 47 people were arrested,
some of them accused of “disrupting public order” (similar to “inciting social
disorder” in China).
August
18: The e-book “The F-Generation” is published online
at Dan Lam Bao, Ba Sam, etc. as a collection of writings by Vietnamese bloggers
on the three anti-China protest rallies in early summer.
August
23: X-cafevn.org and Dân Luận are hacked for the second
time by Sinh Tử Lệnh. All data are removed.
October
30: No-U football club is established. “Sharing a sense
of patriotism and anger towards China's aggressive acts, suffering from the
same police intimidation and suppression, the protesters find themselves
united. Furthermore, football is a sport that can most easily bring people
together. The No-U football club is founded in this context.
In the spirit of fighting against the irrational
ox-tongue line claimed by China in the Southeast Asian sea dispute, and
claiming Vietnamese sovereignty over Paracel and Spratly Islands, the football
club has also done many other good deeds, including conducting charity tours in
support of indigent people and children in remote areas.” (blogger Nguyễn Tường
Thụy).
November
17: Mr. Hoàng Hữu Phước, deputy for Ho Chi Minh City,
speaks before the National Assembly, “The majority of people will not support a
law on protests and demonstrations because protests and demonstrations, by
nature, are vulnerable and may lead to abuses, which can easily lead to chaos.”
This position and many other opinions and writings on his personal blog earn
Phước the title of “Crazy Deputy” given by bloggers.
November
27: A group of bloggers in Hanoi hold a small
demonstration to “support the PM and National Assembly” in promulgating the law
on protests and demonstrations. All of them are arrested and kept in custody in
Lộc Hà rehabilitation camp until the end of the day. In Sai Gon, blogger Bùi
Thị Minh Hằng is arrested and taken to Hanoi after trying to protest against
the arrest of her Hanoi companions, then detained in the Thanh Hà education
camp, Vĩnh Phúc province, until April 29, 2012, for alleged “disturbing public
order.”
On the same day, Sai Gon No-U football club is
founded.
2012
January
1: Writer Phạm Thị Hoài, who used to run Talawas, sets
up her new blog, Pro&Contra.
Thursday,
January 5: The Tiên Lãng shootout breaks out in the suburb of
Hải Phòng when two fish farmers, Đoàn Văn Vươn and his younger brother Đoàn Văn
Quý, using improvised mines and muskets, resist an eviction by local policemen.
Mainstream media and blog community are both driven into the incidence,
carrying news, analyses and commentaries.
Tuesday,
April 24: A notorious land grab takes place in the district
of Văn Giang, on the outskirts of Hưng Yên province. Bloggers go first in
reporting news about it, followed by official media. Photos and video clips of
the eviction spread virally on the Internet.
Tuesday,
May 29: Quan Làm Báo (quanlambao.blogspot.com) is introduced,
its first entry being “The Love Story of Tâm and Mạnh.”
June
5: The second edition of “The F-Generation” is
published, “reflecting the moods and thoughts experienced by Vietnamese
bloggers in each of their “online” and “offline” protests from 2007 to 2011,
coupled with tensions in Vietnam-China relations. Among the authors, one is
still in detention on this date - jurist Phan Thanh Hải, aka. blogger AnhbaSG;
and one was deceased – artist and blogger Đinh Vũ Hoàng Nguyên.
Saturday,
June 23: China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)
offers for joint cooperation with foreign companies nine offshore blocks which
are located in the seas bounded by the notorious “ox tongue line”, well within
Vietnam’s exclusive zone and 200-nautical mile continental shelf.
Wednesday,
June 27: Vietnam National Petroleum Group (PetroVietnam)
holds press conference to protest CNOOC and China’s bidding.
Sunday,
July 1: Anti-China protests outbreak in Hanoi and Saigon,
and will continue on Sundays of July 8, July 22 and August 5, 2012.
Monday,
August 20: Nguyễn Đức Kiên, known as “bầu Kiên” (Vietnamese
for “manager Kiên”), a prominent tycoon and soccer manager, founder of the Asia
Commercial Bank (ACB), is detained. The arrest, which has previously been
mentioned on the blog Quan Làm Báo, entails a deluge of information on this
blog, which seems to be profoundly haunted by conspiracy theory.
September
24: Trial against Điếu Cày, Tạ Phong Tần and AnhbaSG
takes place in Sai Gon. The indictment says, “the crime that the three accused
committed is especially serious, continuous, enduring, obviously seen, and has
badly affected national security as well as the image of the Vietnamese state
on international arena.”
The judges allege Điếu Cày and Tạ Phong Tần to have
“stubbornly denied their alleged acts”, while AnhbaSG “has admitted and
expressed remorse for his crime, and has requested clemency”. The result is very
harsh sentences imposed upon Điếu Cày and Tạ Phong Tần: 12 and 10 years of
imprisonment respectively. Anhba SG receives a 4-year sentence in prison.
October
14: Nguyễn Phương Uyên (born 1992), a female student at
the Food Industry College, is arrested by the Ho Chi Minh City police at her
dormitory and transferred to Long An police. The reason for her arrest is not
announced until ten days later, that is her “conducting propaganda against the
state” under Article 88 of the Vietnamese Penal Code.
December
12: Journalist Huy Đức, also known as blogger Osin,
releases on Amazon the first volume, “Liberation”, of his book “The Winning
Side”. Printed version of the book is released a few weeks afterwards in the
United States. “The Winning Side” incites a harsh controversy among different
viewpoints on Vietnam's modern history. It is considered both as “the best
Vietnamese history book since 1975” and “a biased look in history”. At the same
time, the author's Facebook page becomes a battlefield between ideologies.
The second volume, “Authority”, is released on
January 13, 2013.
December
27: Human rights lawyer Lê Quốc Quân, director of
Vietnam Solution Ltd., Co., is arrested for alleged “tax evasion”.
December
28: The appeal court hears the case of three bloggers
Điếu Cày, Tạ Phong Tần, AnhbaSG, and affirms the sentences. As at the trial
court, dozens of people are harassed, arrested and held in detention for coming
near the courthouse.
2013
January
19: 72 intellectuals sign on “the Petition for the 1992
Constitution Amendment”, calling for separation of power, for the creation of a
constitutional court, and for the new Constitution to be in accordance with the
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They also call on the military to
pledge loyalty to the nation and the people rather than the Vietnamese
Communist Party as stipulated in Article 70 of the Draft prepared by the
Committee for the Revision Draft of the 1992 Constitution.
March
31: Three students at the Ho Chi Minh City Law
University, including Phạm Lê Vương Các, Nguyễn Trang Nhung, Bùi Quang Viễn,
issue the “Justice for Đoàn Văn Vươn” Declaration, to persuade and encourage
the tribunal to be courageous, independent and impartial in implementing its
duty.
April
2: Trial against the fish farmers Đoàn Văn Vươn and
Đoàn Văn Quý takes place in Hải Phòng. On April 5th, each of them receive a
five-year sentence of imprisonment under charge with “murder”. Nobody died when
these farmers fought against the police force coming to confiscate their land.
April
18: The Free Citizens issues the notice of “Human
Rights Gatherings”, which are outdoor social gatherings to discuss human
rights, to be held on Sunday, May 5, at Nghĩa Đô Park (Hanoi), April 30th Park
(Ho Chi Minh City) và Bạch Đằng Park (Nha Trang).
May
5: At the invitation by the Free Citizens group, some
people in Hanoi, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City go to public parks to
participate in “Human Rights Social Gatherings”. In Hanoi, the picnic turns to
a rally of right activists and land-lost farmers (known in Vietnamese as “dân
oan”, or victims of miscarriage of justice). Many people are confined by local
police in their homes as if they were under house arrest. In Ho Chi Minh City,
the police launch brutal crackdowns on bloggers who they think are active
participants.
May
16: Nguyễn Phương Uyên and Đinh Nguyên Kha stand on
trial court in Long An. Uyên is sentenced six years of imprisonment, Kha eight
years, for “conducting propaganda against the state”, violating Article 88 of
the Vietnamese Penal Code.
May
26: Journalist and blogger Trương Duy Nhất, owner of
the blog “A Different Viewpoint”, is arrested and charged with “abusing
democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state, the legitimate
rights and interests of organisations and/or citizens” as stipulated in
Articles 258 of the Vietnamese Penal Code.
June
13: Journalist and blogger Phạm Viết Đào is arrested
and charged with violation of Article 258.
June
15: Blogger Đinh Nhật Uy, the elder brother of Đinh
Nguyên Kha, is arrested also under Article 258.
July
15: The PM signs Decree 72 on “the management,
provision and usage of Internet services and online information”, which
strictly prohibits the use of Internet to “oppose the State...; threaten the
national security, social order, and safety”, and bans personal websites from
providing general information. The Decree takes effect as of September 1, 2013.
July
18: A group of bloggers, calling themselves as “The
Network of Vietnamese Bloggers”, release Statement 258, urging the government to
amend law to demonstrate its UNHRC candidacy commitment, especially repealing
Article 258 of the Penal Code. Afterwards, these bloggers meet with a series of
international organizations and diplomat missions to hand in Statement 258,
including the OHCHR, HRW, CPJ, embassies of the United States, Australia,
Sweden, Germany, and the EU-Delegation in Vietnam.
Police harassment of bloggers escalate. Active
members of the Network are put under surveillance.
August
13: Police stage an ambush on an evening English class
of a group of young people in Hanoi. The young people, including bloggers and
students, are escorted to the local police station for arbitrary interrogation,
their belongings confiscated withouth reason. Although they are released
subsequently at 3am, when they go to the police station the next morning to
claim back for the confiscated mobile phones and laptops, they are beaten
seriously. Blogger Phạm Ngọc Thắng is hit so that his eardrums were
perforated.
August
16: Appeal is heard in the case against Nguyễn Phương
Uyên and Đinh Nguyên Kha for “conducting propaganda against the state.” Uyên is
given a suspended three-year sentence, and Kha a four-year sentence of
imprisonment. Three months later, on November 29, Uyên is expelled from school.
September
23: 130 Vietnamese people inside and outside of the
country sign and release the Declaration on Implementing Civil and Political
Rights in Vietnam, and, at the same time, launch a website named “Civil Society
Forum”.
October
2: Human rights lawyer Lê Quốc Quân appears before
trial court for “tax evasion”. He receives a sentence of 30 months in prison.
His company, Vietnam Solution Co., Ltd. is ordered to pay a fine of 1.2 billion
dong (equivalent to 56,800 USD).
October
29: Đinh Nhật Uy is put on trial court and given a
suspended 15-month sentence.
November
13: The Vietnamese government signs Decree 174 on
“administrative sanctions in the area of postal, telecommunication, IT and
radio frequency”, imposing a fine of between 70,000,000 and 100,000,000 dong
(approximately between 3300 USD and 4700 USD) on those who commit any of a
great many acts, including “conducting propaganda against the state”, but not
to the extent of penal liability examination.
November
28: The Vietnamese National Assembly vote on adopting
the amendments of the 1992 Constitution as drafted by the ruling Communist
Party. What is worth noting is that 95% of its deputies are members of the
Communist Party; the remaining five percentage are either non-partisan or in the
awaiting list to be sworn in as communists.
December
10: The Network of Vietnamese Bloggers' celebrations of
the International Human rights Day in Ho Chi Minh City are brutally suppressed.
Many bloggers are nearly put under house arrest so that they cannot join the
celebrations. Around ten bloggers, including women and their children, are
battered by police and “outrageous masses”, or those hired by the authorities
to “maintain social order”. Bloggers attending the celebrations are even
attacked by “dirty bombs” of pungent shrimp sauce.
Two days before, on December 8, celebrations by
bloggers in Hanoi are also harassed, with state-sponsored “social order
defenders” grabbing bloggers' belongings, pressing burnt cigarettes against
balloons to blow them up, and destroying human rights materials.
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Tuyển tập này bao gồm 6 báo cáo, đều được soạn thảo
bằng tiếng Anh:
1.
Stakeholder submission for the UPR of Vietnam 2014. Đây là báo cáo chính trong tuyển tập, do VOICE, Dân Làm Báo, Truyền
thông Chúa Cứu thế, Con Đường Việt Nam, và Freedom House, phối hợp thực hiện
vào tháng 5/2013. Nó cũng là phần “báo cáo của các bên liên quan” (stakeholder
submission), một trong các nguồn tài liệu chính để Nhóm Làm Việc về UPR của
Liên Hợp Quốc sử dụng làm căn cứ đánh giá tình hình nhân quyền ở Việt Nam.
2.
Vietnam 2013 Human Rights Report (Báo cáo Nhân
quyền Việt Nam 2013), do Dân Làm Báo thực hiện.
3.
Human Rights Day in Vietnam (Báo cáo về
những vụ đàn áp blogger nhân ngày Nhân quyền Quốc tế), do Mạng Lưới Blogger
Việt Nam thực hiện.
4.
Freedom of Religion and Artistic Expression (Về tự do tôn giáo và quyền tự do sáng tác), do VOICE thực hiện.
5.
How State Impunity Operates (Lợi dụng luật
pháp để chống tự do ngôn luận), bài viết của nhà báo Đoan Trang.
6.
Chronology of Blogging Movement in Vietnam (Lịch sử blog Việt).
Dân Làm Báo
sẽ đăng tải tất cả các báo cáo trong tuyển tập này, để bạn đọc tham khảo.
Dân Làm Báo (Citizen Journalism) 1/28/2014 3 Comments
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