Texas Friends for A Free Vietnam Committee
P.O. Box 262323, Houston, Texas
77207 USA Tel: (713) 640-4268 - Fax: (713) 991-1721
Email: TexasFriends@pdq.net
PRESS RELEASE
Houston, Texas December 30, 1999
Recently, on December 28, 1999, we learned from Reporter Sans Frontieres - Asia-Pacific Desk (asie@rsf.fr) that "On December 25, Hung Pham The, reporter with the French Station Radio France Internationale (RFI), was asked by Vietnamese authorities to leave the country. When he arrived in Hanoi on December 21, the journalist had produced a series of reports on the Roman Catholic Community in Vietnam to mark the Jubilee, and on ruling reforms in the country. According to the authorities, Hung Pham The, had met three people from Hanoi's Catholic Community who did not figure in the program negotiated before he was granted a visa".
Mr. Pham, a RFI reporter, was merely exercising his right to inform the public. The expulsion of Mr. Pham is an obvious impediment to the foreign journalists' right to work freely in Vietnam and constitutes human rights violations, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 19 of this Covenant, which Vietnam has ratified, clearly states: "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds".
We, Texas Friends for A Free Vietnam Committee, represent the freedom-loving people in the State of Texas:
1. Strongly protest the Vietnamese Government for its unlawful expulsion of Mr. Pham during his duty in Vietnam.
2. Urgently call on the Vietnamese leaders to join the civilized nations of the world in the new Millenium. We also call on the Vietnamese Government to stop the control of foreign journalists and to respect the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press in Vietnam.
3. Urgently call on all freedom-loving countries, international organizations and the media in the world to use their influence to stop the unlawful action of the Vietnamese leaders against the foreign reporters.
Contact: David Stockman
Executive Director
(713) 687-1625 (pager)