Vietnam: CFWIJ Condems The Conviction Of Journalist Pham Doan Trang
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December 15, 2021, Hanoi- The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the conviction of the Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang with nine years in jail, after being held in arbitrary detention since October 2020. Jailing Pham for “anti-state propaganda” is a very serious alert to press freedom in Vietnam.
A Hanoi people’s court convicted Pham with nine years in prison. Based on the article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code, the prosecution requested a jail term of seven to eight years, but reportedly Judge Chu Phuong Ngoc decided to convict the journalist with nine years on the grounds that her behaviour was “dangerous for society” and was carried out with the “intention of violating the socialist system”.
“The longer the prison sentence, the more demonstrable the authoritarian, undemocratic, and anti-democratic nature of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” Pham said during her final statement ahead of the court's decision.
“Brothers and sisters, you may imprison me and bask in celebration for eliminating a longstanding thorn in your eye, but you will never be rid of your ugly, authoritarian, undemocratic, anti-democratic reputation. Because an animal is forever an animal; it can never become human,” she noted.
Pham is RSF’s 2019 Press Freedom Prize winner journalist turned activist. She was arrested in October 2020 during a raid at her room that she rented. Due to constantly being chased out by police, Pham was deprived of her right to a permanent residence.
The “Prize for impact” is given to journalists whose work has led to concrete improvements in journalistic freedom, independence and pluralism, or to an increase of awareness of these matters.
Pham covered a wide range of issues including LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, the environment and democratic activism. She is the founder of Luât Khoa, an online magazine that specializes in providing information about legal issues, and she edited another, The Vietnamese, which also helps Vietnamese citizens to defend their rights and resist the Communist Party’s arbitrary rule.
Pham has been beaten by the police because of her work and was detained arbitrarily twice for several days in 2018. She was also detained and harassed in 2016 after her meeting with the then US President Barack Obama and in 2017 after she met with the European Union delegation to talk about the stifling of human rights in Vietnam.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism is deeply concerned with targeted attacks and legal harassment against Pham Doan Trang and violations of fundamental rights. We call on the international community to put pressure on Vietnamese authorities to end violence against journalists.
