Vietnamese journalist Truong Chau Huu Danh was arrested by police in the southern city of Can Tho on December 17, 2020. He is serving a sentence of four years and six months on an anti-state conviction for his journalism in Long An province.
On October 28, 2021, a Can Tho court convicted Danh and four other journalists from the Bao Sach (Clean Newspaper) news outlet under Article 331 of the penal code, which criminalizes “abusing democratic rights and freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state,” according to news reports.
Danh and the other journalists, Doan Kien Giang, Le The Thang, Nguyen Phuoc Trung Bao, and Nguyen Thanh Nha, worked for Bao Sach, a Facebook-based independent outlet that the court ruled published distorted information and defamed the government, according to those reports and CPJ’s coverage.
Bao Sach, which was deactivated after Danh’s arrest in December 2020, had more than 100,000 followers, as CPJ documented at the time. The outlet, which covered corruption and other topics, had published stories on protests over alleged illegal toll collectors on local highway systems and posted images of government officials arrested over their suspected involvement in such a scheme.
The October 28 ruling also banned all five from working as journalists for three years after serving their sentences, reports said. On January 27, 2022, the People’s Court of Can Tho upheld Danh’s and the four other journalists’ convictions and sentences after a two-day trial, news reports said. The ruling also upheld their bans on practicing journalism after serving their prison terms.
CPJ was unable to determine where Danh was being detained in late 2023. Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, which oversees the country’s prison system, did not respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment about Danh’s conviction or his health and treatment in prison sent in late 2023.