Vietnamese journalist sentenced to 7 years on propaganda charges

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published last year |  CPJ News Alert

BANGKOK—A Hanoi court sentenced journalist Nguyen Vu Binh to seven years in prison on Tuesday on charges of propaganda against the state.

Binh was convicted in connection to comments he made in videos on political, economic, and social topics posted on the YouTube channel TNT Media Live in January and March 2022. The channel is owned by U.S.-based broadcasting outlet Tieng Nuoc Toi, or "My Country’s Language."

"Journalist Nguyen Vu Binh was arrested and sentenced to seven years for airing independent views, which Vietnamese authorities continue to treat as a criminal offense," said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. "Binh should be released now, along with all the other journalists wrongfully held behind bars in Vietnam."

Since 2015, Binh has written regularly for U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Asia's Vietnamese language service about corruption, land rights, police abuse, the environment, and human rights. Binh's last article before his arrest criticized the government’s persistent crackdown on pro-democracy activists.

Binh is a two-time recipient of Human Rights Watch's Hellman-Hammett Award given to politically persecuted writers and has been in pre-trial detention since he was arrested at his home in the capital, Hanoi, in February.

CPJ's email to Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security about Binh's conviction did not immediately receive a response.

Vietnam is the world's fifth-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 19 reporters behind bars on December 1, 2023, at the time of CPJ’s latest prison census.

Photo: Reuters