Vietnam steps up fight against anti-government material on Internet
HANOI - The ruling Communist Party has ordered authorities in Vietnam's largest city to
strengthen controls against anti-government material posted by "hostile forces" on the Internet,
state-controlled media reported Saturday.
Ho Chi Minh City's Communist Party organization also instructed local government agencies to
"severely deal" with people who misuse the Internet, said the Phap Luat (Law) newspaper. It did not
elaborate on what penalties people might face.
Some Vietnamese living overseas and dissidents in Vietnam use the Internet to circulate documents
critical of the government. Vietnam's constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press, but in
practice both are significantly restricted.
The party urged the government agencies to tighten controls on websites, to update lists of e-mail
addresses from which anti-government documents have been sent into Vietnam and prevent the
owners of the addresses from sending additional materials, said the newspaper, which is published by
the Ministry of Justice.
City authorities have recently discovered many anti-government documents circulated on the Internet
by "hostile forces," including overseas groups and some internal dissidents, the newspaper said. It
blamed loose control of Internet services and failure to cope with advancing technology.
In late March, a Vietnamese doctor, Pham Hong Son, was arrested for translating and circulating on
the Internet an article about democracy taken from a U.S. State Department Internet site.
In February, a computer science lecturer, Lam Chi Quang, was detained for putting on the Internet an
essay critical of a border agreement signed with China in 1999. Critics say the agreement unfairly
favors China.
Both Son and Quang are still in detention.
Internet service in Vietnam was launched in 1997 and there are now hundreds of thousands of regular
Internet users and thousands of Internet cafes.
All media are controlled by the government, and Internet sites deemed politically or culturally
inappropriate are blocked by the country's government-owned Internet portal.
The Associated Press - June 08, 2002.
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