” At least 60 freelance journalists are behind bars worldwide, nearly double the number from just three years ago. CPJ research shows the number of jailed freelancers has grown along with two trends: The Internet has enabled individual journalists to publish on their own, and some news organizations, watchful of costs, rely increasingly on freelancers rather than staffers for international coverage. Freelance journalists are especially vulnerable to imprisonment because they often do not have the legal and monetary support that news organizations can provide to staffers.”

Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen is among the journalists being held for his work. He is a freelancer whose 25-minute long documentary Leaving Fear Behind prompted Chinese authorities to arrest him and subsequently charge him for subversion. According to the New York Times

“Out of 40 hours of footage and 108 interviews came “Leaving Fear Behind,” a 25-minute documentary that is an unadorned indictment of the Chinese government. Although given the choice to conceal their identities, most of his subjects spoke uncloaked and freely expressed their disdain for the Han Chinese migrants who are flooding the region and their love for the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile since 1959.”

Meanwhile,Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Tien Trung is now facing death penalty. We covered Trung previous arrest in July of this year. According to Reporters Without Borders

“Nguyen Tien Trung, now facing a possible death penalty under article 89 of the criminal code after the charges against him were changed to “trying to overthrow the people’s government.” Arrested more than five months ago, he is due to be tried at the end of the month.

“We call for Nguyen Tien Trung’s immediate and unconditional release as the charges against him are entirely fabricated,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Trung is a pacifist who has never endangered the Vietnamese state. He just exercised his right to free expression, a right he learned to use in France.”

We can only hope that 2010 better than this year, with more freedom for journalists and bloggers worldwide.

October 23, 2009 - Vietnamese authorities have arrested another blogger after sending nine internet activists to prison on two to six years terms for expressing their views on the internet.

Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was arrested on the evening of October 8, 2009 after the police sent plain-clothes officers to her house to harass her, her husband, and their 13-year-old daughter. The officers hit Thuy with bricks, causing her a head injury. Thuy and her husband were then taken away by the police, leaving their daughter at home alone.

Tran Khai Thanh Thuy suffered an injury to her head and her mother (right). [Source: Free Tran Khai Thanh Thuy Blog]

Thuy traveled to Hai Phong earlier that day to support six fellow activists who were held on trial. She was stopped by the police and taken away without cause. After several hours of being held incommunicado, she was released, then arrested again the same evening.

This is not the first time Tran Khai Thanh Thuy has been arrested for her blogging and activism. She was jailed for nine months in 2007 for speaking up and helping aggrieved farmers seek justice for expropriated farm lands. During her imprisonment, she suffered from diabetes and severe tuberculosis but was denied medical care.

Since her release in February 2008, she and her family have been under constant police surveillance and harassment. Her home has been vandalized with human feces.

Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was charged with assault. Vietnamese state-controlled media reported that she and her husband beat and injured another man, hence her assault charge.
A picture of a man bleeding was posted on the state media's website, Dan Tri.

The doctored photograph of Nguyen Manh Diep’s injuries [Source: Free Tran Khai Thanh Thuy Blog]

Vietnamese bloggers studied the picture and stated that digital data encoded in the picture showed that it was taken on February 28, 2005. However, the picture on the website beared a time-stamp that read October 9, 2009. Many Vietnamese bloggers believe the picture was orchestrated by the police to frame Thuy.

Tran Khai Thanh Thuy is an Honorary Member of English PEN, an NGO working to promote literature and human rights, and the 2007 recipient of Human Rights Watch’s Hellman/Hammett Award.

Thuy's blog can be found at http://trankhaithanhthuy.blogspot.com. We are urging bloggers to raise Tran Khai Thanh Thuy's case by supporting her blog as well as writing to your diplomatic representative in Hanoi to intervene in this case. You can also visit the campaign blog http://freetrankhaithanhthuy.wordpress.com.

* This article has been written with the collaboration of Viet Tan - a Vietnamese pro-democracy group.

Since the end of last year, authorities in Vietnam have taken further steps to restrict freedom of expression by unleashing a systematic campaign against bloggers and internet activists. At least 15 bloggers have been arrested and harassed since September 2008.

Nguyen Xuan Nghia, Nguyen Van Tuc, Ngo Quynh, Nguyen Van Tinh, Nguyen Kim Nhan, Nguyen Manh Son, Pham Thanh Nghien and Vu Hung were all arrested in September 2008 for posting writings online regarding sovereignty disputes with China. Also in September 2008, Blogger Nguyen Van Hai, writing under the pen-name Dieu Cay, was sentenced to jail for “tax evasion” after he had planned a peaceful rally against the Beijing Olympic torch relay.

In May 2009, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, known by his blogging name ChangeWeNeed, was arrested for posting online critiques of the government.

Three months after, Bui Thanh Hieu (alias blogger Nguoi Buon Gio) was arrested for criticizing government policies on China. Journalist Huy Duc was dismissed from his newspaper job under pressure from authorities after writing about the Berlin Wall on his personal blog, Osin.

Journalist Pham Doan Trang, who has a blog and writes for the online newspaper VietnamNet, was detained after criticizing the harassment of Vietnamese journalists by Chinese embassy officials.

Blogger Sphinx was detained for posting on his blog a picture of himself wearing a T-shirt saying “Paracel and Spratly islands belong to Vietnam. ”

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, alias blogger Me Nam (Mother Mushroom), was also arrested. She posted pictures wearing a “stop bauxite mining in Vietnam” t-shirt.

Global Voices Advocacy welcomes the recent release of Bui Thanh Hieu, Pham Doan Trang and Sphinx and calls on the Vietnamese government to release all bloggers and internet activists remaining in prison.
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls Vietnam one of the “10 worst countries to be a blogger. ”

Reporters Without Borders lists the Vietnamese government as an “enemy of the internet. ”

Despite the restrictions posed by authorites, Global Voices Advocacy encourges all Vietnamese citizen journalists to continue to exercise their freedom of expression online.

Bloggers can always use our Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor guide to protect their identity, avoid retaliation and considerably reduce the risks that their identity will be linked to their online writings through technical means.

The web has become a critical tool for over 20 million Vietnamese internet users to access and share information beyond the censorship of state-run media.

All information in this post has been provided by Viet Tan , a Vietnamese pro-democracy group.

According to Reporters Sans Frontières

“The Vietnamese authorities have arrested another blogger, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, who follows Bui Thanh Hieu (a blogger arrested on 27 August), Pham Doan Trang (28 August), Nguyen Tien Trung (July) and Dien Cay (April 2008). She was arrested at around midnight on 1 September on charges of violating national security laws and “interfering in state interests.””

Quynh, who blogs under the name “Me Nam” had posted entires criticizing China in her blog. She called her government to shut down a bauxite mine project which is largely being conducted by a Chinese company and also commented on Vietnam and China's dispute over South China Sea islands-Spratly and Paracel.Quynh rejects China's cliam over the territory.

Reuters reports that along with bloggign against China Quynh was also a meber of “t-shirt campaign” against China.

“They promoted a campaign to print and give away T-shirts that said “SOS, keep green and keep Vietnam's security” and “Stop bauxite. No China. The Spratlys and Paracels belong to Vietnam.”"

Blogger Bui Thanh Hieu who was involved in the “t-shirt campaign” was also arrested but later released.

Meanwhile Quynh's mother has appealed for her release.

“”Help us to get her free!” Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan told AFP in a tearful telephone conversation from the southern coastal city of Nha Trang, where her daughter Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 30, has been held since Wednesday.”

“Nguyen Tien Trung’s arrest brings the number of journalists and bloggers held in Vietnam to at least 11.
Nguyen Tien Trung, an active member of the Vietnam Democratic Party, was arrested on 7 July, just a few hours after being discharged from the army for refusing to take an oath. The Vietnam Democratic Party was revived in 2006, after being disbanded for 20 years. The policemen who took him away from his home in Ho Chi Minh City were led by the same officer who arrested dissident lawyer Le Cong Dinh last month.

Aged 25, Nguyen Tien Trung could be charged under article 88 of the criminal code although relatives and friends insisted to Reporters Without Borders that he has never been involved in any anti-Vietnamese activity.”

Trung is not the only member of the Democratic Party arrested, Tran Anh Kim, 60, was arrested after being accused of

“….setting up the Movement of Democratic Youth that aimed to collude with anti-government forces at home and overseas to bring about a ‘change of political regime' in Vietnam. He was discharged from the army fir subordination a day before he was arrested, the newspaper reported.

Police said Trung wrote blogs, distributed several documents, ran the ‘Democracy Youth Forum' on the internet and made speeches at meetings to incite people to oppose the government.”

Nguyen's arrest is not the first time he has been victimized for his activism.Vietnam's government's crackdown on Trung's activism lead to IBM rescinding its job offer. A 2007 post by Committee to Protect Bloggers indicates that the technology giant developed cold feet after learning about Trun's free speech activism in his home country.

Despite severe government action, pro-democracy and free speech movement is thriving online. Matt Steinglass at Boston Globe says

“But the recent activism of the dissident movement is fueled by a younger generation, exposed to new political ideas through study abroad and, especially, the Internet.

Blogs have proliferated in Vietnam over the past year, though most are carefully apolitical. Bloc 8406 would be paralyzed without Internet chat and voice-over-Internet programs, which members use to communicate beyond the reach of police telephone taps.

……..Vietnamese law prohibits the use of the Internet to attack the government or undermine public security. A national firewall attempts to block political websites, but many get through anyway.”

At YouTube, bloggers have posted number of videos on Vietnam's pro-democracy movement, majority of which are in Vietnamese. Here is a video, on dissidents arrested by the government for advocating free speech.

Facebook has number of groups dedicated to promoting Vietnam's freedom movement.Democracy for Vietnam is one of the largest with about 3,400 members.

On the San Francisco leg, protesters went viral, covering the event through Twitter, video and even audio live updates.

Come next Tuesday, however, what you might not be seeing on YouTube is any cellphone-shot footage of human rights protests uploaded by Vietnamese bloggers as the Olympic torch makes its way through Ho Chi Minh City; Nguyen Van Hai, a prominent citizen reporter there who blogs under the name Dieu Cay, was arrested this past week as he led efforts to organize local bloggers to follow the torch's passing.

One world, one voice?

Some are saying that Nguyen's arrest comes as Chinese authorities have been putting pressure on their Vietnamese counterparts to keep Beijing's sacred flame procession as harmonious as possible, a goal which apparently now requires everything from death threats to readiness to shoot to kill.

RSF made a call upon the Vietnamese government this week to release all prisoners of conscience, many of whom once blogged, before the Olympic torch arrives on April 29:

Bloc 8406 members Huynh Nguyen Dao, Le Nguyen Sang and Nguyen Bac Truyen have been sentenced to jail terms of three, four and two years respectively on charges of “propaganda hostile to the government” in what they posted online.

In one video of Dieu currently found on YouTube, he looks to be hearing out a group of women's grievances; in another, part of a set uploaded late last winter, someone can be seen being confronted and then ushered away by police while Dieu and friends film the scene from nearby: