Update | Vietnam arrests 2 dissident bloggers
Bloggers Nguyen Huu Vinh and Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy face seven-year sentences after being accused of breaking the law by posting articles online critical of the government
Nguyen Huu Vinh and Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy are accused of violating Article 258, which carries a maximum seven-year jail sentence.
Basam and its US-based managing editor Ngoc Thu have been repeatedly targeted by hackers with suspected links to the Vietnam state over the last 18 months. She said the arrests were “groundless” and insisted that the struggle for basic democratic freedoms in the country would continue.
“Dissident bloggers can be arrested, blogs can be shut down, but they are like wild grass with deep roots that can’t be dug up,” she wrote in a posting on the blog on Tuesday. “The government cannot control information on the internet, because no one can control the thoughts of other people.”
“Dissident bloggers can be arrested, blogs can be shut down, but they are like wild grass with deep roots that can’t be dug up.”
Vinh, 58, was a regular on anti-China protests in the capital. At a recent one, he wore a camera fitted to his head to record the action and publish it online later.