Vietnamese journalist Le Anh Hung has been detained since March 9, 2026. He is being held in pre-trial detention on charges of “spreading propaganda against the state,” an anti-state charge the government frequently uses to harass, convict, and imprison journalists.
Hung contributes to various independent outlets, including Thien Dan, and posts to his own blog. He was formerly a contributor to the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) and also writes books, including the self-published “Power and the Control of Power in Societies.” His most recent blog post before his arrest highlighted a Hanoi city campaign to eliminate illegal markets, The Straits Times reported.
On March 9, police arrested Hung at a friend’s house in Duc Trong District, central Lam Dong Province, according to a report by Vietnam Thoi Bao, a news site run by the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), and information compiled by Project 88, an independent rights group that monitors the status of Vietnamese political prisoners and was formerly known as The 88 Project.
Police later transferred Hung to Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi and charged him under Article 117, the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. The article, which criminalizes “making, storing, or spreading information, materials, or items for the purpose of opposing the state,” carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
As of June 2026, the journalist is being held at Hanoi’s Temporary Detention Center No. 1, according to Project 88’s data.
Hung was previously arrested for his journalism in 2018 and held alternately in prison and a psychiatric hospital until his 2022 conviction under Article 331, which criminalizes the abuse of “democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state, organizations and individuals.”
He was released on July 5, 2023, after serving a five-year sentence under abusive conditions, according to VOA reports and the journalist’s email communications with CPJ. Radio Free Asia reported that Hung had been beaten with a metal chair, tied to a bed, and forcibly injected with unspecified drugs by a nurse at a Hanoi mental hospital.
Hung is a member of the IJAVN, a local group that works outside the state-dominated media. Several of its members, including founder Pham Chi Dung, have been convicted and sentenced to harsh jail terms.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security did not immediately reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.