AWARD CITATION FOR THE BIWEEKLY TỰ DO NGÔN LUẬN

 

By Prof. Nguyen Ngoc Bich

 

 

This year’s Human Rights Award from the Vietnam Human Rights Network is hereby presented to the bimonthly newsletter TỰ DO NGÔN LUẬN, published both electronically and on paper in Vietnam and throughout the world, for its courageous struggle for the freedom of expression in a country where none exists.

 

TỰ DO NGÔN LUẬN started publication on April 15, 2006, as the main organ of the Democracy Movement in Vietnam known as 8406, and it has appeared uninterruptedly since.  By December 6 this year, it has reached issue number 64.  This is a feat in itself and by its presence alone, it demonstrates that no totalitarian regime can possibly muzzle all the voices of reason and opposition to a violent, corrupt and bankrupt regime that can only survive with the backing of its police, security and army personnel.

 

But the voice of freedom and non-violence as represented by the bimonthly TỰ DO NGÔN LUẬN is bound to win out in the end.  As of now, it has spawned several other organs built in the same mold, meant to defy the monopoly of truth claimed by the Communist Party and eventually to nurture a climate of freedom of thought in a country which has for over sixty years been starved of such freedom.

 

 

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