Vietnam : Bloggers and citizen-journalists v. state violence | Reporters without borders

As the media all take their orders from the Communist Party, the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and citizen-journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution including violence by plainclothes policemen. To justify jailing them, the Party is increasingly resorting to articles 88, 79 and 258 of the criminal code, under which “anti-state propaganda,” “activities aimed at overthrowing the government,” and “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state” are punishable by long prison terms. After hardliners got control of the party leadership, 2017 saw a marked increase in the level of terror, with many citizen-journalists either expelled or jailed in connection with their posts. Two women bloggers, Tranh Thi Nga and Me Nam, were sentenced to nine and ten years in prison respectively in 2017.