Internet banned in Vietnamese province
HANOI - Although Internet service is booming elsewhere in
Vietnam, it was banned in a central province by local security officials
who said it could threaten national security, official media reported
Friday.
The Phu Yen provincial post office offered public Internet service in the
provincial capital in late 1998 and it flourished for six months, the Lao
Dong (Labour) trade union newspaper reported.
But provincial security police then demanded that the post office
present a plan to ensure that Internet service could not endanger
national security, the newspaper quoted Luong Muoi, deputy director
of the provincial post office's Information Technology Centre, as
saying.
Post offices in neighbouring provinces did not face similar demands,
he said. Local security police often act on their own volition.
The provincial post office chose to close down the service, Muoi said.
The newspaper quoted Dinh Thanh Hai, a local police official, as
saying it was wrong for the post office to launch its Internet service
without seeking permission from relevant agencies, especially without
reporting to the provincial police on measures to protect national
security.
Some Vietnamese dissidents have used the Internet to spread
documents critical of the Communist government.
Internet service, which was introduced in Vietnam in 1997, is provided
by five government agencies which regulate its content.
The Associated Press - August 17, 2001.
|