Vietnam Arrests 65-Year-Old Blogger for Posting 'Bad Content'

The Vietnamese government arrested a 65-year-old blogger Saturday for allegedly publishing "bad content that decreases trust in state agencies," in a move demonstrating the regime's increasing crackdown on online content in the Southeast Asian country.

For the past three years, Hong Le Tho has been posting both English and French language entries to his blog, "Nguoi Lot Gach," which means "brick layer" in English, according to Le Monde. Many of his articles dealt with the strained relations between Vietnam and fellow Communist nation, China. A number of Vietnamese bloggers have landed in jail for writing on this subject.

It remains unclear if there was a singular post that led to Tho's detention. The blog was taken down following his arrest.

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The single ruling party in Vietnam has tight control over the state-owned media, and has imposed a ban on all private-run media outlets. The government also regularly censors broadcasts on issues it deems "sensitive," which includes the country's ongoing dispute with China over the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Vietnam and China have been fighting for years over ownership of the two archipelagos, which are believed to contain important offshore oil and natural gas reserves.

The diplomatic conflict came to a head in May, 2014 after China attempted to dispatch an oil rig close to the Paracel Islands. Anti-Chinese riots erupted across Vietnam soon after, killing at least 21 and injuring more than a hundred. Protesters also destroyed and looted many Chinese-owned businesses.

David Camroux, a specialist in Southeast Asian relations and lecturer at the Center for International Studies and Research at Science-Po in Paris, told VICE News that despite the rivalry, Vietnam sees anti-Chinese sentiment as a potential threat to its own authority.

"Anti-Chinese protests often turn into dissent against the Vietnamese regime," Camroux said. "There is the underlying idea that the government is not doing enough to defend the nation's interests."

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Since the '80s, the Vietnamese Communist party has loosened its grip on Vietnamese society. In 1986, the government relaxed the rules governing the country's economy and allowed the people to vote for party deputies from a pool of regime-vetted candidates.

But the government still maintains strict control over the press. According to a recent report by press freedom advocates, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), Vietnam currently ranks 174 out of 180 countries on its Freedom of Press Index.

As a result, dissident voices in Vietnam have been largely restricted to social media and blogs. The number of web users in Vietnam has tripled since 2000, and an estimated 90 million people — one third of the population — are now online.

RSF told VICE News that Vietnam currently holds at least 27 bloggers in detention, making the country "the second biggest prison for Netizens," after China.

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"This figure does no take into account people who are under house arrest, and under tight surveillance," the head of RSF's Southeast Asia office, Benjamin Ismaïl, said. "They are locked up at home, and it may as well be detention."

Ismaïl added that the most common charges brought against bloggers are related to breaches to national security. If found guilty of threatening the country's security, Tho, who is also known by his blogging name "Nguoi Lot Gach," could face between 10 and 20 years in jail.

In October, prominent Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Van Hai, also known as Dieu Cay, was released from jail following the partial lifting of a US embargo on lethal weapon sales to Vietnam. According to analysts, the release came as Vietnam sought closer relations with the US. Cay, who also founded of the Club of Free Journalists of Vietnam, was detained for allegedly "spreading anti-government propaganda."

Image via Flickr.