Vietnamese Reporters Arrested
From: Shawn McHale <mchale@gwu.edu>
Date: Tue, May 13, 2008 at 1:47 AM
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
Thanks for the stories about the arrests of the Tuoi tre and Thanh Nien journalists.
For those of you puzzled by some references in the story -- the PMU 18 affair was a big government procurement and embezzlement scandal. Various individuals have gone on trial, including I think a a high ranking official in the Ministry of Transportation. Note: the scandal broke a few years ago under the former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.. The question in some minds, I am sure, is whether or not the investigation went high enough. There was another scandal that broke last fall -- a computer procurement scandal in the government -- but I am not sure where the prosecution is going on it.
"Nam Can" refers to a colorful Saigon gangster. Correction -- he was a small time Hai Phong gangster who moved to Saigon after getting out of jail, linked up with gangsters who had been active under the old pre-1975 regime, made it big in gambling and extortion rackets, and was eventually arrested (in 2001?) for a murder. For a view of the case from the Police point of view, you can read a racy book, Nguyen Nhu Phong's *Chuyen an Z501* -- which I have not finished.
The blog in question states that fabricated allegations against some of the alleged participants of the PMU 18 affair made it into the press accounts over the past three years. TGhe suggestion is that journalists may be taken in by fabricated stories on the PMU-18 scandal, and suggests that journalists need to follow their professional responsibilities and not publish every allegation of malfeasance. The problem, Osin suggests, is whether or not they were (uniwttingly) passing on fabricated stories or not, whether they were (unwittingly?) violating their own professional duties or not.
?
This is all so murky to me. The Vietnamese members of this list could make much more sense of it. Are journalists being used by different parties to the affair? Is there a lack of a critical investigative edge here? Whatever -- this does seem a bit like shooting the messenger for conveying a bad or ill-informed message. It is interesting that, in passing, Osin notes that "very many" Vietnamese journalists have been summoned in the past year, presumably by the police, in connection with such reporting.
In one sense, this seems like deja vu. Journalism in 1930s Vietnam was a dirty messy affair as well. In the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s, journalists could get killed for what they wrote, and some routinely ended up in prison. The big difference here is that the press in Vietnam today is a part of the state apparatus. It has some leeway, of course, but nonethless the press is not an oppositional force. It criticizes in order to better the state, not to undermine it. Of course, the best way to avoid this kind of mess is for the state to practice more of one its favorite buzzwords, "transparency." Then, perhaps, there would be less peddling in rumors?
Shawn McHale
Associate Professor of History and International Affairs
George Washington University
----- Original Message -----
From: Quynh Le <lequynh78@gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 6:40 am
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Vietnamese reporters arrested
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
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From: Stephen Denney <sdenney@ocf.berkeley.edu>
Date: Thu, May 15, 2008 at 10:34 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Here is an interesting account from Vietnam Net Bridge, which I believe is published under government auspices. It quotes several Vietnam journalists and officials who are pretty open in their criticism of these arrests:
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/reports/2008/05/783092/
- Steve Denney
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From: dan hoang <hoangdanlieu@yahoo.com>
Date: 2008/5/16
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
It is a sad story for almost of us. We hope anti-corruption campaign will growth the belief in transparency and equality for Vietnam if it can come to the end.
Lieu
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From: Stephen Denney <sdenney@ocf.berkeley.edu>
Date: Fri, May 16, 2008 at 8:30 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Freedom House recently issued its annual report on worldwide press conditions, including Vietnam, in which it described restrictions both on the official press and on dissident journalists:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/fop08/CountryReportsFOTP2008.pdf
(scroll down to the bottom for Vietnam).
- Steve Denney
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From: Jim Cobbe <jcobbe@fsu.edu>
Date: Sat, May 17, 2008 at 9:15 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
For those who have not seen it, the following editorial from Thanh Nien's English-language website may be of interest
http://www.thanhniennews.com/others/?catid=13&newsid=38496
print version [loads faster if it works]
http://www.thanhniennews.com/print.php?catid=10&newsid=38610
--
Professor Jim Cobbe
AY 2007-08: Fulbright Scholar, Đại Học Kinh Tế Đà Nẵng
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From: Stephen Denney <sdenney@ocf.berkeley.edu>
Date: 2008/5/18
To: jcobbe@fsu.edu, Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I wonder if this could be a milestone of sorts with the state-controlled media so openly challenging the government over the arrests of its journalists.
- Steve Denney
Library Assistant, UC Berkeley
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From: Bill Hayton <bill.hayton@bbc.co.uk>
Date: 2008/5/18
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
It's certainly provoked a huge reaction. I wonder how much coverage will be allowed to continue after the editors' meeting at the Ministry of Culture on Tuesday...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
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