Two journalists who were arrested last May after reporting on corruption within the Vietnamese government are set to go on trial next week. The two reporters, Nguyen Van Hai and Nguyen Viet Chien, are charged with “abusing freedom and democracy,” even after their reports led to the conviction of nine people and forced the Vietnamese transportation minister to step down.
Two police officers who allegedly gave information to the journalists are also going on trial for “deliberately revealing state secrets,” according to an AP report on the story.
The Economist has a good description of the corruption that the reporters uncovered, saying the “case was a scandal at the transport ministry in 2006 in which newspapers revealed how officials had gambled around $750,000 of public money on the outcomes of football matches. In the clean-up that followed, the head of a road-building department at the ministry was jailed, along with seven others.”
In a related story, The China Post reports that seven journalists had their press cards taken away in retaliation for covering the corruption story.
Media watchdog groups rightly argue for the release of the two journalists, arguing that jail time will discourage other would-be whistle-blowers and investigative journalists from reporting on government crimes.
The trial could last two days according to a court official, and the charge of “abusing freedom and democracy” has a maximum sentence of seven years in jail.
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November 11th, 2009 at 9:35 am
[...] ‘The two reporters, Nguyen Van Hai and Nguyen Viet Chien, are charged with “abusing freedom and democracy,” even after their reports led to the conviction of nine people and forced the Vietnamese transportation minister to step down.’ Arrested in May…so I cannot even imagine what they experienced so far…and now – they are facing two days of trial and possibly seven years in prison. More on this from AP here. [...]
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