PRESS FREEDOM ALERT
28 December 1999
In a letter sent today to secretary-general of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Le Kha Phieu, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) protested against pressure on Hung Pham The, a reporter with Radio France Internationale (RFI). The journalist has been ordered to leave the country. According to RSF general secretary Robert Ménard, this "expulsion that dares not speak its name" is an obvious impediment to the foreign journalists' right to work freely in Vietnam". Reminding the Vietnamese official that the journalist was merely exercising his right to inform public, as guaranteed by article 19 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Vietnam has ratified, RSF called for "an end to the control of foreign journalists and for liberalisation of the country's press laws".
According to RSF's information, on December 25 Hung Pham The, reporter with the French station Radio France Internationale, 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 He had met three people from the Hanoi's Catholic community who did not figure on the programme negotiated before he was granted a visa.
Vincent Brossel
Asia Pacific Desk
asie@rsf.fr
web : www.rsf.fr
5 rue Geoffroy Marie 75009 Paris
tel : (33 1) 44 83 84 84
fax : (33 1) 45 23 11 51