Vietnam Imprisons Journalist for Seven Years on Accusation of “Propaganda”

According to his sister, a Vietnamese court on Tuesday sentenced a journalist who covered topics like land rights, corruption, and the environment to seven years in prison. This makes him the most recent government critic to go to jail.

Political activist Nguyen Vu Binh, who spent nearly five years in prison in the early 2000s, was charged with disseminating propaganda against the government.

Communist Vietnam severely suppresses any form of opposition and lacks a free media. According to the press freedom advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), it is the third largest jailer of journalists worldwide.

After the hearing in Hanoi, his sister Nguyen Thi Phong told AFP, “He was given seven years in jail.”

He declared his innocence to the court during the trial. He claimed he didn’t urge anyone to defy the government. He claimed to be using his right to free speech.

Analysts claim that in recent years, Vietnamese authorities have tightened their crackdown on dissent.

Before the verdict was announced, Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), stated, “Nguyen Vu Binh has tirelessly campaigned for human rights and democracy in Vietnam.”

Gossman went on, “His nonviolent expression of political dissent is not a crime.”

The 55-year-old Binh was detained in late February on the same day as prominent YouTuber and activist Nguyen Chi Tuyen, who raised awareness about land rights and pollution.

Tuyen was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty last month of “making, storing and disseminating information, documents and materials against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”

Binh worked as a journalist for the official Communist Party of Vietnam publication for ten years.

After leaving in late 2000, he made an effort to start his own political party.

For espionage, he was detained from late 2003 to June 2007.

Following his release, Binh wrote a blog for Radio Free Asia where he discussed issues such as land rights, corruption, the environment, and Vietnam’s ties to China and the US.

In both 2002 and 2007, Binh was awarded a coveted Hellman/Hammett grant, which is awarded to victims of political persecution.

According to HRW, in August and September, at least seven human rights activists were found guilty and punished on similar charges by Vietnamese authorities.

A human rights organization with a focus on Vietnam, The 88 Project, reports that there are now 175 activists incarcerated in the nation.

The nation is ranked 174th out of 180 in the world on RSF’s index of press freedom.

In recent years, the government has also carried out a larger campaign against corruption that has resulted in the firing or imprisonment of a large number of government employees and business executives.