22 August 2006
INTERNET CENSORSHIP GROWING
Internet censorship in Vietnam is increasing, with authorities using more sophisticated filtering technologies to deny citizens in the country access to websites that contain information deemed politically sensitive, warns the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA).
Citing a recent study by the OpenNet Initiative - a research partnership between the universities of Toronto, Oxford and Harvard - SEAPA says communist party officials in Vietnam are particularly bent on banning content that questions the country's one-party system.
The study notes that "the technical sophistication, breadth, and effectiveness of Vietnam's filtering are increasing with time, and are augmented by an ever-expanding set of legal regulations and prohibitions that govern on-line activity. It seems inescapable that the state's on-line information control will deepen and grow."
While purporting to filter out "obscene" or sexually explicit content, Vietnamese authorities are in fact targeting websites that challenge the state's political orthodoxy. Most websites that mention political dissidents, democracy are blocked. Websites that discuss religious faiths such as Buddhism and Caodai, are also blocked. In nearly all cases, websites in the Vietnamese language are far more likely to be blocked than sites in English or French.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) notes that the Internet is quickly becoming a popular medium of communication in Vietnam. State media reported in 2005 that Vietnam had more than seven million Internet users, nearly twice that of the previous year.
Two people are currently in jail in Vietnam for expressing their opinions on the Internet, according to Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).
Pham Hong Son and Nguyen Vu Binh have been imprisoned since 2002. Pham Hong Son, a physician and pharmaceutical marketing executive, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of house arrest for "spying". He had translated and posted online an article from the local US embassy website called "What is democracy?" and an essay called "Encouraging signs for democracy in Vietnam."
Nguyen Vu Binh, a former journalist for a communist party publication, was sentenced to seven years in prison and three years of house arrest. He was accused of having relations with "subversive dissidents" such as Pham Hong Son and of posting articles on the Internet which were of a "reactionary nature."
Visit these links:
- OpenNet Initiative Study: http://www.opennet.net/studies/vietnam/
- SEAPA: http://www.seapabkk.org/
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=17366
- RSF Petition Urging Pham Hong Son's Release: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=11647
- Human Rights Watch Backgrounder: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/vietna12249.htm
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