Vietnam suspends press cards over Clinton poll
HANOI - Vietnam has suspended
credentials of three senior
journalists after their state-run paper published a
survey last year showing
that then U.S. President Bill Clinton was more popular
than the prime
minister.
Thursday's official Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper said the
Ministry of Culture
and Information's Press Department had decided to
temporarily suspend the
press cards of the editor-in-chief of the Tuoi Tre
(Youth) newspaper, Le Van
Nuoi, and two deputies.
It said this followed an item published by the Ho Chi
Minh City-based paper
in January 2001 judged "a serious error in propaganda
work" by the ministry.
"The Press Department has seriously considered the case
and will halt the
issue of their press cards temporarily," it quoted Do Quy
Doan, Director of
the Press Department, as saying.
A source at Tuoi Tre said the story at issue had been a
survey in which young
people were asked who their idols were.
While late revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh came out top
and Vietnam War
General Vo Nguyen Giap second, Bill Clinton -- who had
just paid a landmark
visit to Vietnam the previous November -- rated better
than Prime Minister
Phan Van Khai.
Khai secured only a 3.2 percent rating, level with
Hillary Clinton.
The source at Tuoi Tre said the three journalists had
press cards valid until
June last year and had not applied to renew them when
they expired.
"So it's not the Press Department that is suspending
their press cards, but
them deciding to do so themselves."
The ministry's Doan and the journalists could not be
reached for comment.
All Vietnam's domestic media are under the control of the
state and are seen
by the ruling Communist Party as a vehicle for
propaganda.
Serious deviation from the party line is rare, but Tuoi
Tre, a popular paper
with a young readership is one of a few publications that
has attempted to
push out the boundaries of state control through
provocative articles on
issues such as corruption and abuses by state officials.
Reuters - March 14, 2002.
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