Three Vietnamese online journalists were convicted and jailed on Monday, a sign the communist government is widening its crackdown on the media, say press freedom groups.
The bloggers were accused of spreading “anti-state propaganda,” and given four to 12-year-long sentences by a court in Ho Chi Minh City.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a press watchdog, said the three maintained blogs that were critical of the ruling Communist Party.
“Today’s sentences, imposed against three online journalists who were merely expressing critical opinions, mark a new low point for press freedom in Vietnam,” Shawn Crispin of CPJ said in a statement.
He added Vietnam’s decision contravenes “international standards for freedom of expression,” calling on the government to reverse the ruling.
The president of the court said the bloggers undermined the government.
“They abused the popularity of the Internet to post articles which undermined and blackened [Vietnam’s] leaders, criticizing the [Communist] party and destroying people’s trust in the state,” the president said, according to the Australia Broadcasting Corporation.
The CPJ said local Vietnamese authorities intimidated family members of the bloggers and warned them not to attend the trial.
The son of one of the bloggers claimed “that police intentionally rammed his mother’s car on Friday in Bac Lieu province and that she was summoned to report to a police station coincident with today’s trial,” according to the watchdog
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