February 11, 2015

Vietnam Cracks down on Anti-corruption News Website

by • Kim Quoc Hoa

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báo cao tuổi
By KTT, Feb 10, 2015
Defend The Defenders
Vietnam’s Ministry of Pubic Security has forced an anti-graft news website offline and launched a probe into the case under the 258 Article in the Penal Code, to which the violator would face up to seven years in prison.
The online Nguoi Cao Tuoi (Elderly) newspaper was accused of “abusing rights to freedom and democracy to violate state interests” and ordered to take down its website, the MPS said on its website.
The Ministry of Information and Communications dismissed the editor-in-chief Kim Quoc Hoa and withdraw his journalist card on Feb 9.
Being a small news website in Vietnam, the online Nguoi Cao Tuoi newspaper has posted many articles criticizing corruption among state officials, initiating investigative journalism into many corruption cases over the past time.
Lawyer Tran Dinh Trien said that the probe is totally right as the website covers groundless news for commercial purposes.
Meanwhile, lawyer Tran Vu Hai said that the probe is unfair as the anti-corruption investigative journalism at the newspaper is helpful.
Hanoi-based observers said that the probe of the case is not aimed to solve violations but silence an anti-corruption voice.
Corruption remains rampant in Vietnam and the communist country has called for better measures to combat it but the situation has not changed yet while people who denounce corruption are yet to be protected.
Corruption in Vietnam caused an estimated losses equal to between 1.7% and 3.3% of the country’s GDP in 2012, the Government Office said.
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