Vietnam / Asia

  

Forensic tools open new front for using phone data to prosecute journalists

On April 13, police in Russia’s Khakassiya republic arrested Mikhail Afanasyev and seized his digital devices. Afanasyev, chief editor of the online magazine Novy Fokus, was detained based on an article about riot police in southern Siberia refusing to serve in Ukraine. He faces a possible 10-year prison sentence for spreading “false” information.  It’s not surprising for…

Read More ›

How social media regulation could affect the press

The United Kingdom moved a step closer to regulating social media in December when a parliamentary committee recommended major changes to the country’s Online Safety Bill so as to hold internet service providers responsible for material published on their platforms. “We need to call time on the Wild West online,” said committee chair Damian Collins….

Read More ›

CPJ joins letter calling for release of Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang

The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined 27 other free speech and human rights organizations in an open letter urging Vietnamese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release journalist Pham Doan Trang. The letter is timed to coincide with the start of her trial on November 4; Trang has been held in pretrial detention for over…

Read More ›

How Vietnam-based hacking operation OceanLotus targets journalists

In early 2020, Vietnamese writer Bui Thanh Hieu told Marina Mai, a freelancer based in Berlin, that he was closing his blog to protect his family. In 2009, Hieu was detained for a week for his critical writing on Vietnam’s territorial disputes with China, as CPJ documented. In 2013, he fled to Germany, but continued writing…

Read More ›

A woman in a face mask is seen addressing the camera in a YouTube vide.

Journalists jailed for social media “terrorism” highlight content moderation challenges

A journalist in China uploaded a video to YouTube criticizing the Chinese government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. Another, in Vietnam, left a state-owned newspaper but continued posting stories they wouldn’t let her cover on Facebook. In Egypt, a freelance photographer streamed an anti-government protest from his balcony on Facebook Live. In Iran,…

Read More ›

Vietnamese blogger Tran Thi Nga is adjusting to life in the U.S. after authorities ordered her into forced exile as a condition of her early release from prison. Nga served three years of a nine-year sentence over her reporting. (Family photo)

Freedom at a high cost for Vietnamese blogger Tran Thi Nga

When Vietnamese blogger Tran Thi Nga was arrested by authorities on January 21, 2017, she did not know at the time it would likely be the last time she would ever be in her home in northern Ha Nam province.

Read More ›

On International Women’s Day, CPJ highlights jailed female journalists

On International Women’s Day, CPJ has highlighted the cases of female journalists jailed around the world in retaliation for their work. At least 33 of the 251 journalists in jail at the time of CPJ’s prison census are women. At least one of those–Turkish reporter and artist Zehra Dogan–was released in February after serving a…

Read More ›

Vietnamese blogger Dang Xuan Dieu is forced to live in exile as part of conditions for his early prison release. (Family handout)

‘I wanted to stay and fight for my beliefs’ says jailed Vietnamese blogger forced into exile

Vietnamese journalist and religious activist Dang Xuan Dieu was granted early release January 12 from a 13-year prison sentence on anti-state charges filed over his critical reporting. As with recent early releases of other jailed Vietnamese journalists, Dieu was forced to immediately board a plane and go into exile as a condition for his freedom.

Read More ›

Tran Huynh Duy Thuc was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2010. (AP/Hoang Hai/Vietnam News Agency)

Vietnamese jailed blogger moved to distant province, wages hunger strike

On May 7, my uncle, imprisoned Vietnamese blogger Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, was unexpectedly moved from the Xuyen Moc prison camp situated near our family in Ho Chi Minh City to another detention facility about 1,500 kilometers away known as Camp No. 6 in central Nghe An province. His family was not informed in advance…

Read More ›

Syrians protest the killing and torture of women by President Assad's regime in 2011. The blogger Tal al-Mallohi remains in jail in Syria despite a court ordering her release. (AP/Mohammad Hannon)

On International Women’s Day, CPJ recognizes nine female journalists jailed for their work

Coverage of protests and riots. Revelations of official corruption and graft. Major natural disasters. Investigations into deplorable living conditions. These are some of the important issues journalists cover in their role as the Fourth Estate.

Read More ›