Vietnam jails three more activists in crackdown on Facebook posts
by Reuters
Thursday, 28 November 2019 12:14 GMT
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Vietnam cracking down on anti-government posts on Facebook
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Number of activists jailed this month alone rises to five
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Rights groups decry “climate of fear” in Vietnam (Recasts to add sentencing of two more activists)
HANOI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Vietnam has jailed three more people for anti-government posts on social media platform Facebook deemed to defame the ruling Communist Party and the government, state media and police said on Thursday, bringing the total imprisoned this month to five.
Despite its sweeping economic reforms and openness to social change, the party does not tolerate criticism and its leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, has intensified a crackdown on dissidents and activists since being re-elected in 2016.
Pham Van Diep, a 54-year-old activist from the northern province of Thanh Hoa, was jailed for nine years for spreading “distorted information defaming the Communist Party and the Vietnamese government”, the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said.
“He also spread fake and baseless news about the country’s policies, which caused Facebook users and residents to misunderstand the party and the government,” it added.
The posts were uploaded between April 2014 and June 2019, VNA said, adding that he had also been jailed for 21 months in Laos for spreading anti-Vietnamese literature there in 2016
Doesnt a nation have the right to protect its own sovereignty?
Putting the matter of freedom aside, doesnt a national government have the right and the responsibility to stop the forces which threaten that government’s existence?