Human Rights Watch: Immediately Release Rights Bloggers
Members of Club for Free
Journalists on Trial
April 16, 2012
(New York) – Vietnamese
authorities should immediately release the bloggers Nguyen Van Hai (a.k.a Dieu
Cay), Phan Thanh Hai (a.k.a Anhbasg), and Ta Phong Tan and drop all charges
against them, Human Rights Watch said today. The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh
City will reportedly convene a criminal trial against them on April 17, 2012,
for conducting propaganda against the state under article 88 of the penal code.
The three bloggers are
founding members of the Club for Free Journalists, which they established in
September 2007 to promote freedom of expression and independent journalism.
During the first few months the club was operating, members covered sensitive
news and events that were either suppressed or ignored by local authorities and
the government-controlled media. Some of their reports covered wild-cat strikes
by industrial workers in Binh Duong province, the trial of prominent dissidents
such as Le Thi Cong Nhan and Nguyen Van Dai, 2008 protests against the Beijing
Olympics, land disputes between Catholic churches and local governments, and the
2007 protests by Buddhist monks in Burma.
However, shortly after the club was founded, police began to harass, intimidate
and detain its members, starting with the arrest of Nguyen Van Hai, the founding
manager, in April 2008.
“Economic development and social stability require freedom of expression, and an
independent media to report on issues and abuses that government officials want
to sweep under the rug,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human
Rights Watch. “Locking up bloggers does nothing to suppress or solve the
controversies they reported. The authorities have not just violated the rights
of these authors, but of their readers as well.”
Nguyen Van Hai, a 60-year-old war veteran, received the prestigious Hellman
Hammett award in 2009 for writers who have suffered persecution as a result of
their writings. He has been arrested and interrogated repeatedly by Ho Chi Minh
City police since he participated in multiple protests against China between
December 9, 2007 and January 19, 2008. Police arrested him on April 20, 2008,
nine days before the Beijing Olympic torch traveled to Ho Chi Minh City, and
later prosecuted him on a trumped-up tax evasion charge. On September 10, 2008,
the People’s Court of District Three sentenced him to two years and six months
in prison.
On October 20, 2010, the day he finished his prison term, police officials
refused to release him. Instead, the authorities came up with a new charge that
he had violated article 88 of the Penal Code by carrying out “propaganda against
the Socialist Republic.” His former wife, Duong Thi Tan, who was preparing to
pick him up from the prison, was detained and interrogated by police in Ho Chi
Minh City, and authorities searched her house. “Vietnam shamelessly constructs
spurious legal charges and rationales to keep peaceful critics like Nguyen Van
Hai behind bars,” Robertson said. “This latest charge reveals the reality that
the authorities locked him up for nothing more than political reasons.”
Phan Thanh Hai, 43, is a dissident writer who blogs under the pen name “Anhbasg”
or “Anh Ba Sai Gon.” His writings aim to promote government transparency,
freedom of expression, and freedom of association. After he participated in a
protest in Ho Chi Minh City against the Beijing Olympics in December 2007,
police put him under intrusive surveillance, detained, and interrogated him many
times.
Although he finished his legal studies in 2008 and fulfilled all requirements to
become a practicing lawyer, his application was turned down by the Justice
Ministry because of his involvement in protests and his blogging activities.
Regular police harassment has effectively prevented him from securing regular
employment. On October 18, 2010, police arrested him in Ho Chi Minh City for
allegedly conducting propaganda against the state under article 88 of the penal
code. Phan Thanh Hai received the Hellman Hammett award in 2011.
Ta Phong Tan, 44, is a
former police officer and a former communist party member. She began her writing
career as a freelance journalist in 2004. Her articles appeared in many
mainstream newspapers including Tuoi Tre
(Youth), Nguoi Lao Dong
(Laborer), Vietnam Net, Phap Luat TP Ho Chi
Minh (Ho Chi Minh City Law),
Thanh Tra (Inspectorate), Can
Tho, and Binh Duong.
Since March 2006 dozens of her articles have been published on the website of
BBC’s Vietnamese service. This eventually prompted the Communist Party of
Vietnam to revoke her membership.
Since she began her blog, Justice & Truth
(Cong ly & Su that) in November
2006, she has become one of the most prolific bloggers in Vietnam. She has
written more than 700 articles about social issues, including the mistreatment
of children, official corruption, unfair taxation of poor people, and grievances
connected to illegal land confiscations by local officials. In addition, using
her knowledge of police work, she provides insightful observations about
widespread abuse of power by the police in Vietnam.
As a result of her writing, the police have repeatedly harassed her. Since 2008
she has been detained and interrogated on numerous occasions about her
activities, her associates, and the contents of her blog. Ta Phong Tan was
arrested on September 5, 2011. She also received the Hellman Hammett award in
2011.
“With more than seven hundred state-controlled media outlets and thousands of
pro-government web portals, the Vietnam government has a giant propaganda
machine working to beautify the face of the state,” Robertson said. “So what do
the authorities have to fear from a handful of bloggers, equipped with only
personal cameras and computers, and why are they so determined to persecute
them?”
Excerpts from the blogs of Nguyen Van
Hai, Phan Thanh Hai and Ta Phong Tan:
Vietnam
does not have the rule of law; it only has the rule of the Party. The law was
compromised to protect police officers and Party members who abuse power.
— Nguyen Van Hai (a.k.a Dieu
Cay), “Hoang Hai to everyone!” June 28, 2007.
Blogging is an escape
route for those whose ideas and actions are imprisoned. It allows one to express
resistance against injustice and violence. Blogging is where an individual can
express his/her desire for freedom.
— Phan Thanh Hai (a.k.a.
Anhbasg), “Blog is creating a ‘civil society’ of perfection and freedom,”
October 3, 2007.
I am a free journalist. I
write about what I see and hear. I comment on social issues as I understand
them. I expose the victimization of people like myself and my friends by the
State of Vietnam. I defend people without power who suffer injustice. But the
Vietnamese state wants to silence me. Their cadres told me I was not allowed to
write about anything that touches the state. The Vietnamese state is controlling
every aspect of Vietnamese society. Anything I wrote can be interpreted as
touching upon the state. An article I posted on my blog which retold a dream I
had (‘Last night I dreamt of meeting the old Marx’) was accused of ‘distortion.’
This Vietnamese state even controls people’s dreams. The people only have the
rights to dream as they are told.
— Ta Phong Tan, “I am facing
a plot [against me],” April 4, 2010.