Parliament adopted a new law on the press on 19 May. After "intense discussions", members reached agreement on a bill which the director of the official news agency said would "give the press more rights and make journalists' work easier". In fact, the law gives the culture and information ministry entire responsibility for running the media and in particular the internet, which has been accessible in Vietnam for just over a year.
This means that the ministry has the power to decide what subjects should be covered, paying particular attention to the struggle against corruption. Journalists are still liable to prison sentences in cases of libel and publishing false information. They are also obliged to pay damages and to publicly apologise when someone believes they were libelled in a report, even if the information given is accurate.
With the approval of the new law, the communist government once again legalised its control over Vietnam's 600 or so publications, radio, television and the internet. In the months leading up to the vote on the bill, various newspapers referred to cases of corruption involving government officials, although self-censorship is still common. An underground press is published irregularly. L'Eveil, which calls itself the "magazine of Vietnamese youth" published its fifth issue in September after several months of silence caused by a series of police swoops.
Journalists jailed
The government announced on 2 September that it had decided to grant an amnesty to 6,028 prisoners, most of whom had been convicted of minor offences. They did not include Pham Thai, a journalist jailed since July 1995, and three journalists from the literary journal Lang Biang Magazine who are under house arrest: Bui Minh Quoc, Nguyen Xuan Tu and Tieu Dao Bao Cu.
Geophysicist and dissident writer Nguyen Thanh Giang was arrested by police on 4 March for "posession of anti-socialist propaganda". The next day a foreign ministry spokesman said he had contravened article 205A of the penal code, which states that "anyone who misuses freedom of speech or freedom of the press against the interests of the state is liable to a maximum sentence of three years in prison". Nguyen Thanh Giang has published many articles in dissident or foreign newspapers and magazines. He has worked tirelessly for several years to condemn corruption among communist party officials. After numerous international protests, he was released on bail on 10 May but is still under house arrest.
Pressure and obstruction
President Tran Duc Luong reminded the editors of Vietnam's leading newspapers on 11 February that they had a duty to combat "hostiles forces" and to keep their revolutionary obligations" in mind. "The role of the press is to serve the communist party and to promote socialist ideology", he added.
In March the government issued another warning to human rights organisations and individual campaigners who "interfered in internal affairs". The threats, which coincided with the publication of a report by the United Nations' special rapporteur on religious freedom, were followed by a wave of arrests of dissidents, including Nguyen Thanh Giang.
Retired general Tran Do, a former party official thrown out of the government in early January for dissidence, sent a long letter to the prime minister on 12 July asking for permission to launch a newspaper, Forum of the People. Tran Do referred to the 1992 constitution, article 69 of which states that "citizens enjoy freedom of speech, press freedom and the right to be informed". The request was refused. The government claimed that the press law did not allow an individual to start a newspaper. All editors in Vietnam must belong to the communist party and work under the direct supervision of the culture ministry's ideology committee.
Thich Quang Do, number two in the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, said on 27 September that he had officially requested permission to launch a magazine devoted to the activities of his church and the "state of the nation". Three months later, he had still not received a reply.
Nguyen Hoan, deputy editor of Labor was fined six million dongs (430 euros) for libel on 11 November, and the newspaper was ordered to apologise publicly to Nguyen Van Son, director of the hotel sector for the Quang Tri region. Nguyen Hoan had accused Nguyen Van Son of faking documents in order to embezzle public funds. The official had often been suspected of corruption and had even been imprisoned in 1995 for trafficking in spare parts. Although the government has said it is determined to combat corruption, it does not allow journalists to investigate such cases as they please.
On 25 December Hung Pham The, a reporter with the French station Radio France Internationale, was asked by the Vietnamese authorities to leave the country. He had arrived in Hanoi four days earlier to do a series of reports about the Roman Catholic community in Vietnam and about ongoing reforms in Vietnam. Officials claimed that Hung Pham The had failed to respect the agreed programme because he had met three people belonging to the Hanoi Roman Catholic community whose names were not in the programme negotiated before he was granted a visa.
Vincent Brossel
Asia Pacific Desk
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