A Vietnamese court on Thursday sentenced an independent journalist to 30 months in jail over Facebook posts that criticized the government, according to state media.
The court in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, convicted Truong Huy San of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state” through posting 13 articles on Facebook, according to Vietnam News Agency. The trial lasted only a few hours.
“These articles have a large number of interactions, comments, and shares, causing negative impacts on social order and safety,” the indictment read, according to state media.
The journalist, also known by his pen name Huy Duc, worked for state-run newspapers in Vietnam before later turning to write what became one of Vietnam’s most popular blogs and Facebook accounts.
In his posts, he often criticized the country’s communist leaders on issues ranging from corruption to press freedom.
Vietnamese state security agents detained Huy Duc in June 2024, just days after he published articles about political turmoil in the country on Facebook.
The Vietnamese government often uses the charge of “abusing democratic freedoms” to target press freedom defenders, according to Reporters Without Borders, or RSF.
“By handing this prison sentence, the regime showed its contempt for press freedom, as well as its determination to silence independent voices. We call on the international community to step up the pressure on Hanoi to secure his release and of all journalists detained in the country,” RSF’s Asia-Pacific director, Cedric Alviani, said in a statement.
The free expression group PEN America also condemned Huy Duc’s sentencing.
“Sentencing Truong Huy San for his writing is a stark reminder that Vietnam fears the power of words,” PEN America research and advocacy manager Anh-Thu Vo said in a statement. “The sentencing is a blatant attempt to silence expression and signals a chilling message to writers, journalists, and activists across Vietnam who dare to express independent thought.”
A former senior army lieutenant, Huy Duc was fired from a state news outlet in 2009 for criticizing past actions by Vietnam’s former communist ally, the Soviet Union.
After his dismissal, Huy Duc turned to blogging and social media.
Huy Duc later spent a year at Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship in 2012. While abroad, he published “The Winning Side,” a book about life in Vietnam after the war with the United States ended.
Huy Duc’s imprisonment underscores the poor state of press freedom in Vietnam, which ranks 174th out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 shows the best environment.
Vietnam also ranks among the worst jailers of journalists in the world. In early December, the Southeast Asian country ranked fifth worst, with 19 behind bars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
One journalist who contributed to VOA and four who worked with VOA's sister outlet, Radio Free Asia, are among those detained.
Media analysts warn that Vietnamese authorities use laws to restrict free expression. In December, Vietnam enacted rules requiring social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities.
Digital rights and press freedom experts said the law would make it harder for people to anonymously criticize the government in a country where those who do so publicly are often persecuted.
Huy Duc had written previously of that climate, saying on Facebook one month before his arrest, “No country can develop sustainably based on fear.”
Vietnam’s Washington embassy did not immediately respond to a VOA email requesting comment.
Some information for this article came from Agence France-Presse.
