Vietnam issues arrest warrant for journalist in hiding Doan Bao Chau

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published 4 months ago |  CPJ News Alert

BANGKOK—Vietnamese authorities issued an arrest warrant on August 14 for Doan Bao Chau for propagandizing against the state, according to a state media report and the reporter, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app.

“Vietnam must repeal its arrest warrant, drop any pending charges, and cease its legal harassment of journalist Doan Bao Chau,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “If Vietnam wants its legal system to be taken seriously, it must stop weaponizing it to silence the press.”   

Chau, who has previously worked as a freelance photographer for the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse news agencies and as a reporter for The New York Times, currently reports via his personal Facebook page, which has over 200,000 followers.  

Chau told CPJ that he was subjected to a travel ban and frequent police summons over his reporting beginning in June 2024, after which he went into hiding.

On July 3, over 20 officers raided and searched his home in the capital Hanoi, and charged him under Article 117, Chau said. Maximum penalties under the law carry 20-year prison sentences. Vietnamese authorities frequently use the anti-state charge to harass, threaten, and imprison journalists, CPJ research shows.  

Vietnam tied with Iran and Eritrea as the seventh worst jailer of journalists worldwide, with at least 16 reporters behind bars on December 1, 2024, in CPJ’s latest annual global prison census.  

Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, which manages the nation’s prisons and authorizes police to make political arrests, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.