Do Van Nga, a contributor to the Germany-based independent Vietnamese-language news site Thoibao.de, is serving a seven-year prison sentence for anti-state propaganda, a charge authorities frequently use to stifle independent reporting and commentary in Vietnam’s highly restricted media environment.
On December 31, 2025, Hanoi’s People’s Court convicted and sentenced Nga in a one-day trial under Article 117 of the penal code, a provision that criminalizes “making, storing, disseminating or propagating information, documents, and items aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” according to news reports and Thoibao.de editor Le Trung Khoa, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app.
The court convicted Khoa in absentia the same day on the same charge and sentenced him to 17 years in prison, the reports and Khoa said. On December 31, Thoibao.de contributor Huynh Bao Duc was also convicted under Article 117 and sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison, those same sources said.
Nga and Duc were convicted over 21 videos and 10 articles that the court said insulted the Communist Party, state leaders, and officials. Nga was forced to confess to the charges on national television on December 28, 2025, according to news reports and Khoa.
Nga went missing on November 8, 2025, soon after landing at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport, according to Khoa. Nga had traveled from Thailand, where he has lived in exile for several years, to renew his passport, Khoa said.
He never emerged from immigration control after texting with his family upon arriving at the airport, the editor said. He was being held at Hanoi’s B-14 detention center, Khoa said, citing information from the journalist’s family.
Khoa said the charges are likely retaliation for a German court’s dismissal of all but one defamation complaint filed by Vingroup, one of Vietnam’s largest business conglomerates, over his site’s critical reporting on its VinFast carmaker.
The Ministry of Public Security did not immediately reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.