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

Year :      [2003]      [2002]      [2001]      [2000]      [1999]      [1998]      [1997]

Vietnam’s media development given top priority

Recently hostile forces against Vietnam repeatedly accused Vietnam of human rights violations, particularly violations of press freedom. To justify their allegations, they said that some people in Vietnam have been banned from using the Internet. From such groundless evidence, they hastily jumped to the conclusion that there is no press freedom in Vietnam. They even demanded that the Vietnamese State abolish regulations on use of the Internet and allow law breakers all available means of communications, including the Internet to distribute anti-government documents.

These slanders and absurd demands are unacceptable because they interfere in Vietnam’s internal affairs. These actions not only violate the laws of an independent and sovereign country, but also international law. It is certain that these slanderous allegations convince nobody, because no one can deny the strong development of the Vietnamese press during the last 20 years of renovation. Vietnam now has 600 publications, and 90 percent of the nation has radio and television coverage. People have access to all the diverse communication systems of a modern society.

When on-line communication became popular throughout the world, Vietnam also quickly gained access to this latest element of information technology. After five years of opening the national Internet Gate, Vietnam’s IT development is equivalent to that in many regional countries, with 250,000 subscribers, 1 million users and 4,000 public Internet establishments. These achievements could not have been fulfilled in such a short period of time without support of the Party and State.

In fact, the Vietnamese State has never banned the Internet rather on the contrary it has actively encouraged people to use it. The State even provides favourable conditions for business to use and develop e-commerce. The Internet has become an important form of communications in the socio-economic life of the country and daily attracts more users. The ill-intentioned and hostile forces have not accepted this reality. They have deliberately distorted the facts in an attempt to protect reactionaries who use the Internet as a tool to disseminate poisonous information against the homeland. Vietnam has developed regulations to expand the use of the Internet as well as TV programs via satellite. But Vietnam will resolutely prohibit anyone using the Internet or any form of communication against the country. Any sovereign nation in the world would take similar actions to ensure national stability and sustainability. Even the US has applied tough measures on Internet control. The US Congress also approved an Act allowing its security agencies to bug telephone calls, e-mails and the Internet.

Recently in its war in Iraq, the US banned American soldiers from disclosing information through e-mails to their relatives. Slander about Vietnam’s press repression, particularly on the Internet is sheer fabrication and unjust. Vietnam can proudly declare that in this country people from all walks of life, young and old alike, have access to information through diverse forms of communication.

The latest demonstration of this was when the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) appeared in Hanoi, all newspapers, Radio, TV and Internet, daily provided timely and accurate information to the community on the development of the disease. Thanks to on time instructions and investment from the Party, State and Government plus the rapid dissemination of accurate information by the press, Vietnam was the first country in the world to control SARS and the international press praised Vietnam for this achievement. And thanks to SARS control, the Vietnamese have a safe life in peace and stability. For Vietnam, these are fundamental human rights, which have been protected and developed. The Vietnamese press has provided significantly to these successes.

Radio Voice Of Vietnam - May 6, 2003.


Third journalist beaten up in Vietnam

In Vietnam, a newspaper reporter says he was attacked after taking photographs of a fight outside a bar in Ho Chi Minh City. It is the third reported assault against journalists in Vietnam in the past fortnight. Duc Hien, a photo-journalist for a police newspaper says both he and a police captain were attacked by two men after they arrived at the scene. On Wednesday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists wrote to Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong expressing its concern over two recent attacks on reporters.

ABC Radio Australia News - May 3, 2003.