A Vietnamese court sentenced a prominent independent journalist Huy Duc, on Thursday to 30 months in prison over Facebook posts that criticized the government.
Huy Duc, 63, was convicted of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state” for posting 13 articles on Facebook, according to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
He previously worked for influential state-run newspapers and authored one of Vietnam’s most popular blogs and Facebook accounts, criticizing communist leaders on issues like corruption, media control, and relations with China.
Huy Duc stated that he did not want to oppose the Communist Party or the state, but that part of his content offended their interests, for which he accepted responsibility and expressed “deep regret,” according to VNA.
“These articles have a large number of interactions, comments, and shares, causing negative impacts on social order and safety,” the indictment read, according to state media.
Huy Duc, the journalist’s pen name, attacked Vietnam’s most powerful leader, To Lam, and his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong, online just before his arrest last June.
It was unclear if the allegations were tied to those specific posts.
Vietnam, a one-party state, has no free media and cracks down hard on dissent. According to the press freedom campaign group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), it is one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists.
The Hanoi trial occurred just months after blogger Duong Van Thai, who had nearly 120,000 YouTube subscribers and routinely filmed livestreams critical of the government, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of distributing anti-state material.
In January, a prominent former lawyer was sentenced to three years in prison for making Facebook statements.
Huy Duc, real name Truong Huy San, is a former senior army lieutenant.
In 2009, he was fired from a state-run news station for criticizing Vietnam’s longtime communist partner, the Soviet Union.
Huy Duc received a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2012, and he spent the year there.
While there, he authored “The Winning Side,” an account of life in Vietnam following the end of the conflict with the United States.
RSF stated that his publications were “an invaluable source of information” for the Vietnamese population, allowing them access to previously restricted information.
“By handing down this heavy prison sentence, the regime showed its contempt for press freedom, as well as its determination in silencing independent voices that report on facts that are not in line with the regime’s propaganda,” RSF advocacy manager Aleksandra Bielakowska told AFP.
Vietnam is the world’s sixth largest jailer of journalists, with 38 currently jailed, according to RSF.
Rights activists claim that in recent years, the government has increased its crackdown on civil society.
“No country can develop sustainably based on fear,” Huy Duc wrote on Facebook in May, the month before he was arrested.
Vietnam passed new regulations in December forcing Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and send over data to authorities.
All internet firms operating in the nation must authenticate user accounts using phone numbers or Vietnamese identification numbers and record that information alongside their full name and date of birth, according to “Decree 147.”
