~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Bogus journalist arrested in Vietnam

A man was arrested in Vietnam for posing as a journalist for seven years in order to pocket the cash and gifts traditionally handed out to local reporters to encourage them to write positive stories. Lai Ngoc Oanh, 56, was detained by police on Thursday in Hanoi after a tip-off by suspicious reporters from the Thoi Bao Kinh Te Saigon newspaper, for whom he claimed to work.

Mr Oanh, formerly a car mechanic from the northern province of Lao Cai, confessed that since 1997 he had used a false name to pass himself off as a reporter for the Ho Chi Minh City-based economic weekly.

He told Saturday's Lao Dong's newspaper that by posing as a journalist he was able to earn more money than he could as a mechanic. Police are drawing up papers to prosecute him on charges of fraud and forging state identity papers, the report said.

ABC News Australia - July 13, 2003.