Guwahati (The Stellar News): Various international media right bodies have joined in the chorus to release prominent Vietnamese independent journalist Pham Doan Trang from the jail, who was arrested by the Vietnam authority on 6 October 2020. She has been placed in detention on a charge of anti-government propagandas without allowed her to access to a lawyer. Awarded with the RSF Press Freedom Prize for Impact a year ago, the outspoken author may face a possible 20-year jail sentence probably for her work as founder of the dissident online magazine Luât Khoa and editor of The Vietnamese where both the media outlets helped the citizens of Vietnam to understand the country’s laws, defend their rights and resist the Vietnamese Communist Party’s authoritarian rule.
“Trang has become a model for countless young, freedom-loving Vietnamese activists. She is one of Vietnam’s most respected writers. Because of her determined opposition to all forms of injustice and discrimination, she has repeatedly been targeted by the Vietnamese authorities. She was hospitalized as a result of the after-effects of a beating at both of her hands by the Ho Chi Minh city police personnel after her arrest in 2018,” said Daniel Bastard of Reporters Sans Frontiers.
It may be mentioned that Vietnam’s single party communist government often punish its critics, who speak about democracy, press freedom and the rule of law in the south-east Asian nation. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International had also demanded her immediate release. Global rights bodies apprehend that more such arrests of dissidents are likely before the ruling party’s 13th Congress early next year.
