Authorities in Vietnam arrested one of the country’s most prominent journalists and accused him of “abusing democratic freedoms” by publishing articles on Facebook that “infringed on the interests of the state and the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.”
Journalist Truong Huy San, known to many by his pseudonym, Huy Duc, was detained last week, according to a prominent Vietnamese blogger. But there was no official confirmation until Friday night, when state media reported that the Ministry of Public Security was investigating Mr. San over his Facebook posts. There were no details about the content of the posts.
The arrest is an ominous sign for other writers in Vietnam. Journalists have long been a target of the country’s ruling Communist Party, which frequently crushes dissent. But for years, San had managed to navigate the small space of independent thought, often publishing articles critical of the government. His connections with high-level officials were thought to have been a buffer…until now.
San’s case is part of a broad crackdown on civil society that many human rights groups say has expanded in scale and scope in recent years. The law he is accused of violating is “overly broad” and is frequently used by authorities against government critics, according to Human Rights Watch.
“Huy Duc is Vietnam’s most influential journalist,” said Ben Swanton, director of Project 88, a U.S.-based nonprofit that focuses on human rights issues in Vietnam. “Your arrest of him represents an alarming attack on press freedom and is the latest in an ongoing crackdown on reformers.”
Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists and PEN America have called on the government to release Mr. San.
Vietnamese state media reported on Mr. San’s case along with the arrest of a lawyer, Tran Dinh Trien, who was charged with the same crime as Mr. San. Trien, former deputy director of the Hanoi Bar Association, has represented many clients in high-profile legal cases. He was also arrested for articles he had posted on Facebook.
After San, 62, disappeared on June 1, his Facebook account, with more than 350,000 followers, was deactivated and his posts deleted.
Screenshots saved by Project 88 show that on May 26, San targeted the police on Facebook with a headline: “A COUNTRY CANNOT BE DEVELOPED BASED ON FEAR.” He criticized the concentration of power under the Ministry of Public Security, which was recently led by To Lam, the new president.
On May 28, San published an article criticizing the crackdown on corruption launched by the powerful head of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong. San wrote that the fight against corruption should be carried out through institutions and not by “eliminating” several high-ranking corrupt officials.
In 2016, Trong said his “burning furnace” campaign against corruption would root out “bad roots” and purify the party, but he has also rocked Vietnam with an unusual number of high-level resignations.
If Trong “does not show a political roadmap to make the country more democratic, his cleanup is meaningless,” San wrote in his May 28 post.
Mr. San received a Hubert H. Humphrey Scholarship to study at the University of Maryland in 2005-2006. When he returned to Vietnam in 2006, he founded a popular blog that published social and political commentary. Vietnamese authorities closed the blog in 2010.
In 2012, San spent a year at Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship, during which he wrote a journalistic account of post-Vietnam War titled “The Winning Side.” The book, banned in Vietnam, is widely considered the definitive account of postwar Vietnamese history and politics.
According to the 2024 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, Vietnam ranks 174th out of 180 countries and territories.
The country is “the fifth worst jailer of journalists in the world,” with at least 19 reporters locked up as of December, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.