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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Communists put Bloggers on trial

Burned herself alive for freedom.
The mother of a Blogger arrested by the Vietnamese Communists burned herself alive in protest.



Internet Crackdown  -  The Vietnamese government is cracking down on Bloggers who criticize the Communist regime
  • The one-party Socialist dictatorship keeps cracking down on Internet freedom of speech.
  • While people are imprisoned, foreign governments and businesses line up to make money off the Communists.
  • Governments all over the world live in fear of a free Internet.



The international community is calling for the release of three Vietnamese bloggers facing trial for propaganda against the state.  The request comes just days after the mother of one of the bloggers committed suicide by setting herself on fire.
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Vietnamese authorities postponed a trial for three prominent Vietnamese bloggers, claiming their lawyers had called for the delay following the self-immolation death of the mother of one of the defendants reports Radio Free Asia.

Ta Phong Tan, a Catholic former policewoman, Nguyen Van Hai, better known by his online alias Dieu Cay, and Phan Thanh Hai, known as Anh Ba Saigon, are facing charges for the "crime" of conducting propaganda against the state.




The postponement came as authorities on Friday launched an investigation into the self-immolation death of Tan’s mother, Dang Thi Kim Lieng, who set herself ablaze in front of a municipal building in Bac Lieu province earlier this week in protest of her daughter’s trial, according to Tan’s sister Ta Minh Tu.

Tu said her mother was also troubled by a threatened eviction from her town over a personal land dispute which the government had not resolved, despite numerous petitions sent to officials.  In Socialist Vietnam all land belongs to the State.

Phan Thanh Hai’s lawyer, Doan Thai Duyen Hai, told RFA that a court clerk had contacted him and the other two lawyers to inform them that the trial had been postponed and to ask that they pick up the official notification from the courthouse.

“This afternoon I went to the court to learn the reason for the postponement and the date of the rescheduled trial,” he said. “The notice said the reason for delaying the trial was to ensure the rights of the defendants and their legal benefits as per their lawyers’ request.”


Imprisoned by the Communists for using the Internet.
Vietnamese Bloggers Ta Phong Tan awaits a Communist show-trial for the crime of using the Internet to speak her mind.


The three bloggers are charged with "distorting the truth, denigrating the party and state" for politically critical blogging and for posting hundreds of articles on a banned website known as the "Free Journalists Club" of Vietnam.

Tan, who was a member of Vietnam’s ruling communist party before she became a freelance journalist, frequently blogged about abuses in Vietnam’s legal system.

Phan Thanh Hai, 43, blogged on various issues including territorial disputes with China, environmentally sensitive bauxite-mining projects, a corruption scandal surrounding the state-owned shipbuilder Vinashin, and state harassment of dissidents.

The three bloggers face a maximum of 20 years in prison, based on the charges under Article 88 of Vietnam’s criminal code, a draconian provision that prohibits “conducting propaganda against the state.”

In the last three years, authorities in the one-party state have imprisoned more than a dozen prominent bloggers and activists for using the Internet to express their opinions and advance their causes.
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(Radio Free Asia)        (UK Guardian)

Three Years in Prison for Blogging
A math professor was sentenced to three years for belonging to a pro-democracy group and publishing an anti-communist blog.
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Pham Minh Hoang, 56, was found guilty of trying to overthrow the government by posting 33 articles against the one-party communist government, as well as of holding membership in the banned Viet Tan group and recruiting others to join it. It was the second high-profile dissident trial in just over a week.
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US-based Viet Tan says it is a nonviolent advocate of democracy, but Hanoi considers it a terror organisation.
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 The communist government does not tolerate dissent, and rights groups say it uses vague national security laws to imprison anyone who challenges its rule.   (UK Guardian)

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