Overviewby Abi Wright Threats to press freedom spiked throughout Asia in 2004, even as the news media claimed significant accomplishments. Across the region, 2004 was an election year, with citizens casting ballots in nations such as Afghanistan, whose landmark vote was peaceful and orderly, and India, where more than 370 million went to the polls.…
VietnamDespite U.S. and international pressure, Vietnam showed few signs of relaxing its choke hold on the press in 2004. While maintaining control of traditional media, the government intensified its crackdown on Internet dissent. “Vietnam’s press has been developing stronger than ever,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Dung told foreign reporters in March in response…
New York, January 18, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the indictment of Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, a staff reporter for the Vietnamese daily Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, on a charge of “appropriating state secrets.” The January 5 announcement of legal actions against Lan Anh followed her series of investigative articles about manipulations of the…
JANUARY 5, 2005 Posted January 27, 2005 Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, Tuoi Tre HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION Lan Anh, a staff reporter for the daily Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, was indicted on a charge of “appropriating state secrets.” The January 5 announcement of legal action against Lan Anh followed her series of investigative articles about manipulations…
Around the world, 122 journalists were in prison at the end of 2004 for practicing their profession, 16 fewer than the year before. International advocacy campaigns, including those waged by the Committee to Protect Journalists, helped win the early release of a number of imprisoned journalists, notably six independent writers and reporters in Cuba.
New York, December 23, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by Vietnamese authorities’ intensifying harassment of writer Do Nam Hai. The writer, who penned articles critical of the Vietnamese government under the name Phuong Nam, fears that authorities are planning to arrest him, sources close to the journalist told CPJ. “Vietnam’s record of…
New York, September 21, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the deteriorating health of imprisoned writer Pham Hong Son, who was arrested in 2002 after using the Internet to distribute essays advocating democracy and human rights. Son is in very poor health and has been kept in solitary confinement for the last…
New York, July 29, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the sentence handed down today to writer Nguyen Dan Que by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court. Que was sentenced to 30 months in prison on charges of “taking advantage of democratic rights to infringe upon the interests of the state.” Que did…