Huynh Bao Duc, a contributor to the Germany-based independent Vietnamese-language news site Thoibao.de, is serving a six-and-a-half 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 Duc 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 Do Van Nga was also convicted under Article 117 and sentenced to seven 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.
On November 17, 2025, police arrested Duc during a raid on his home in Ho Chi Minh City, from where he was transported to Hanoi, according to a Thoibao.de press release and Khoa. The journalist was detained at Hanoi’s B14 detention center before and after his trial, but it was unclear where he would serve his sentence, Khoa said.
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.