Vietnamese activist and war veteran Tran Bang faces a continued investigation into his “distributing anti-State propaganda” charges

• Vietnamese activist and war veteran Tran Bang, who previously participated in multiple anti-China protests in Vietnam, faces a new investigation into his Facebook posts that local authorities allege contain “anti-State propaganda,” RFA reported, quoting two of his lawyers.
• Bang was arrested last March and was subsequently charged with “making, storing, and distributing information aimed at opposing the State” under Clause 1 of Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. The initial investigation concluded that Bang had uploaded 31 articles containing anti-State information on his Facebook account between March 2016 and August 2021. However, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy returned the investigation file back to the police in November, demanding further investigation into his case within two months.
• RFA reported that Bang was not allowed family visits until seven months after his arrest. Bang’s family is also worried about his declining health in prison. During a visit last November, he told them he had a tumor growing in his abdomen, while his ears were leaking yellow fluid and his eyes were dry. Bang added that the prison authorities had not approved his requests to be treated at a specialized hospital.

Protesters against road demolition in Nghe An Province receive prison sentences

• A court in Nghe An Province on December 1 convicted seven Catholic residents of Binh Thuan Parish Church, Nghi Loc Village, of “resisting officers on official duty” for protesting against the demolition of a road that ran through their parish, RFA reported. These villagers were previously charged with “resisting officers on official duty” and “disturbing public order.” They were found guilty under Article 330 of the Penal Code, which carries sentences of up to seven years of imprisonment.
• According to State-run media, Bui Van Canh, 44, received one year in prison. Ha Van Hanh, 42, Tran Thi Hoa, 52, and Tran Thi Thoa, 58, were each sentenced to eight months. Tran Thi Nien, 38, and Ha Thi Hien, 35, were both sentenced to six months in prison. Bach Thi Hoa, 70, was sentenced to four months and 17 days, but she has been temporarily detained since July 2022. The court determined that Hoa fully served her sentence and released her after the trial concluded.
• On July 13, the villagers of Nghi Loc held a demonstration near the destruction site of an old public road, which local authorities began to dismantle to clear land for an industrial project. Hundreds of riot police reportedly arrived at the village to stop protesters from removing the fence surrounding the destruction site. A clash broke out between the villagers and riot police after several protesters forced their way past the police line.
• Some villagers had never been consulted about the plan to replace the old civil road with a new route. Although an alternative road has been built by the industrial zone’s management, local residents expressed concerns that the project manager would be able to arbitrarily force the road to close at any time to serve their own interests.

ASEAN and EU parliamentarians raise concerns over the human rights situation in Southeast Asia

• In an open letter published on Dec. 12 by Frontline Defenders, former and current parliamentarians from several member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) have called for the release of imprisoned human rights defenders in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Laos ahead of the inaugural ASEAN – EU Summit, which occurred in Brussels on December 14.
• According to some EU parliamentarians, human rights and democracy issues often take a back seat when it comes to strengthening the bilateral partnership between the two regional blocs. “Boosting trade ties and connectivity are on the main agenda both blocs are keen to push,” Charles Santiago, chairman of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), told German news channel DW.
• Three Vietnamese political prisoners mentioned in the letter are the prominent journalist Pham Doan Trang, activist Nguyen Lan Thang, and the former businessman Tran Huynh Duy Thuc.
• The letter noted that the situation of human rights defenders in the region has worsened in recent years and that they are still subject to political reprisals for their work. Meanwhile, digital surveillance technology, produced and exported by authoritarian regimes such as China and Russia, has increasingly been used to target local human rights defenders and pro-democracy protesters.
• The ASEAN and EU parliamentarians have also requested ASEAN authorities to publicly reiterate the valuable role played by human rights defenders in society, refrain from making statements or declarations stigmatizing their work, stop using libel and defamation laws to silence government critics, and immediately release and drop charges against all human rights defenders and political activists arbitrarily imprisoned for their advocacy.

Reporters Without Borders: Vietnam ranks fourth for the number of imprisoned journalists

• According to an annual report released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a Paris-based advocacy group for press freedom, as of December 1, a total of 533 journalists are being detained worldwide, which is 13.4 percent higher than last year’s figure of 488 journalists. Meanwhile, more than half of them are currently jailed in only five countries, including Vietnam. Female journalists now account for nearly 15 percent of detained journalists, the report says, compared to fewer than seven percent five years ago.
• RSF reported that Vietnam had imprisoned 39 journalists, ranking fourth worldwide. The country only ranks behind China, Myanmar, and Iran regardings the number of imprisoned media workers. Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang, who won the RSF Prize for Impact in 2019, is serving a nine-year sentence for “propagandizing against the state” Three other female Vietnamese journalists are also behind bars, according to RSF.
• A total of 57 journalists and media workers worldwide were killed in 2022, an increase of 18.8 percent compared to the previous year, RSF noted. Do Cong Duong, a Vietnamese citizen-reporter, died in prison on August 2 while serving his eight-year sentence on charges of “disturbing public order” and “abusing democratic freedoms.” Duong gained popularity for his reports and live streamings exposing the authorities’ illegal land seizures and forced evictions.
• “This 58-year-old journalist had suffered from heart problems and recurrent pneumonia that worsened as he continued to be held,” said the RSF report. “Despite his family’s repeated protests, the prison authorities never granted him the necessary care and it wasn’t until he was near death that he was transferred to the prison infirmary. But by then it was too late.”
• The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, underscored how suppression of independent journalism in Asia continued to increase in 2022. Vietnam, which continuously shows little tolerance for independent journalism, has imposed harsh sentences for those convicted of anti-State crimes.
• For example, Le Manh Ha, a Vietnamese citizen journalist reporting on corruption and land seizures, was sentenced to eight years in prison and five years of probation last October on charges of “distributing anti-State propaganda.” Last August, an independent blogger, Le Anh Hung, also received a five-year sentence for “abusing democratic freedoms.”

Hanoi cancels World Press Photo Exhibition 2022, possibly due to political reasons

• According to BBC News Vietnamese, Hanoi authorities canceled World Press Photo Exhibition 2022 just a few hours before its opening date on December 9. The event was scheduled on a pedestrian street near Hoan Kiem Lake.
• The Hanoi authorities claim that several photos from the exhibition violated sections 5.3 and 5.5 of the government-issued Decree 72/2016/NĐ-CP on photography. According to these sections, exhibited photos shall not “incite wars and enmity between nations and people,” “distribute reactionary propaganda,” and “promote violence and social evils,” among other things.
• Andre Davies, media director of the World Press Photo Foundation, which organizes the event, told BBC News that he had not been informed which photos from the exhibition allegedly violated these regulations. But Davies said he believed the censorship might result from including photos depicting protests and political unrest worldwide in this year’s exhibition.
• “It is hugely disappointing that after four years of allowing our annual exhibition in Hanoi the authorities decide to block it on opening day,” said executive director of World Press Photo Foundation, Joumana El Zein Khoury, in a press release. “Seeing stories that matter from around the world helps us understand each other better. It is shameful that some authorities in Vietnam cannot see the benefit in that.”
• Vietnam imposes tight regulations on the arts. The Vietnamese government previously canceled public events deemed politically sensitive at the last minute. Last month, a musical show performed by Che Linh, a Vietnamese singer who fled South Vietnam following the takeover by Communist forces in 1975, was canceled after the Ho Chi Minh City authorities refused to grant permission for his performance to be staged.
• Last September, another musical performance by the overseas-based Vietnamese singer Khanh Ly was canceled at the last minute in Hanoi. The Hanoi Opera House, where the show was scheduled to perform, said the cancellation was due to the regular examinations of the electricity at the venue. However, some activists believe that the cancellation was politically motivated since Khanh Ly was known for her anti-Communist sentiments.

Vietnam rescues 154 Rohingya refugees but returns them to Myanmar’s junta regime

• Two Vietnamese oil and gas service ships rescued 154 Rohingya refugees on December 7 but later returned them to the Myanmar military government, according to an RFA report. Previously, VTC News, a State-owned news agency, reported that two Vietnamese ships, Hai Duong 29 and Hai Duong 38, rescued the refugees off the coast of Myanmar’s Andaman Sea. HADUCO Co., a Vietnamese marine services provider manage these ships. Around half of the refugees were women and children.
• After bringing the refugees safely onto their ships, the Vietnamese crew members contacted and worked with Vietnamese and regional authorities to resolve the incident. Myanmar’s maritime forces reportedly came and received them. International human rights organizations criticized the repatriation of Rohingya to the Myanmar junta. Many fear that the junta-controlled courts could punish these refugees upon returning to Myanmar.
• “The [HUDACO] company and the Vietnamese government are completely irresponsible in handing these refugees over to the [Myanmar] army,” Wai Wai Nu, director of the Women’s Peace Network, an organization advocating for the protection of human rights in Myanmar, told VOA News. “[The Myanmar army] is the same organization that committed genocide against the Rohingya people and caused the situation in Myanmar. […] That’s the top reason why these people have to leave their homeland.”

Freedom of Religion in Vietnam: What happened last week?

• Vietnamese authorities destroyed a pagoda of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam

RFA reported that on December 13, local authorities in Ngoc Hoi District, Kon Tum Province, sent police and dozens of local officials to destroy Son Linh Pagoda, a local Buddhist temple belonging to the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. The Unified Buddhist Sangha is an independent religious organization which is not recognized by the government. The State-sanctioned Vietnamese Buddhist Church is the only Buddhist organization legally operating in Vietnam.

Son Linh Pagoda, located in Plei Kan Town, Ngoc Hoi District, was established as a monastery in 2009. In 2018, the pagoda’s monks built a temple on the monastery’s land. But the Ngoc Hoi District authorities later demolished the temple, alleging that it had been illegally built on cultivated land. The monks and practitioners at the temple had to construct another makeshift structure made of wood and corrugated iron.