<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Sep 4, 2009
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Viet's mounting crackdown <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->HANOI - THREE online writers in Vietnam who touched on the sensitive topic of China relations have been arrested in a 'mounting crackdown' which drew strong condemnation on Friday from a global press watchdog.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for the immediate release of Pham Doan Trang, a journalist for prominent news website VietnamNet, and Bui Thanh Hieu, who blogs under the name Nguoi Buon Gio (Wind Trader). Both were arrested late last week allegedly over 'national security' issues.
'Vietnam is already one of the world's worst violators of Internet freedom, and recent actions only underscore that reputation,' CPJ's Asia programme director, Bob Dietz, said in a statement.
The mother of another blogger confirmed to AFP on Friday that her daughter, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 30, was arrested by about 15 officers around midnight Wednesday at their home in the southern coastal city of Nha Trang.
Quynh blogged under the name 'Me Nam'.
Her mother, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan, said Quynh was accused of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state, a crime which can lead to a prison term.
All three had posted articles about sovereignty issues in the South China Sea, where Vietnam and China are engaged in a boundary dispute over the Spratley and Paracel archipelagos.
Both Wind Trader and Quynh had also written about a bauxite mining project which is controversial partly because a Chinese company has been granted a major contract.
'Growing commercial and diplomatic ties with China are particularly sensitive in Vietnam, given the two neighbouring countries' often antagonistic history,' the CPJ said in a statement.
Quynh's mother said that on July 20 she wore a T-shirt calling for the cancellation of the bauxite project and announcing Vietnamese sovereignty over the Paracels and Spratleys.
A foreign diplomat, who asked not to be named, said Quynh had gone 'a step further' than blogging by producing the T-shirts. The other blogger and journalist were also involved with the T-shirt venture, the diplomat said.
The detained VietnamNet reporter wrote in May that China 'possesses the conditions to become a regional hegemonist.' She had also shared sensitive information with bloggers and journalists about a Chinese official who called on his Vietnamese counterparts to discipline local newspapers and journalists, the CPJ said, citing the independent Free Journalists' Network of Vietnam.
Nobody at the Chinese embassy could be reached to comment on the allegation. -- AFP
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Viet's mounting crackdown <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->HANOI - THREE online writers in Vietnam who touched on the sensitive topic of China relations have been arrested in a 'mounting crackdown' which drew strong condemnation on Friday from a global press watchdog.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for the immediate release of Pham Doan Trang, a journalist for prominent news website VietnamNet, and Bui Thanh Hieu, who blogs under the name Nguoi Buon Gio (Wind Trader). Both were arrested late last week allegedly over 'national security' issues.
'Vietnam is already one of the world's worst violators of Internet freedom, and recent actions only underscore that reputation,' CPJ's Asia programme director, Bob Dietz, said in a statement.
The mother of another blogger confirmed to AFP on Friday that her daughter, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 30, was arrested by about 15 officers around midnight Wednesday at their home in the southern coastal city of Nha Trang.
Quynh blogged under the name 'Me Nam'.
Her mother, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan, said Quynh was accused of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state, a crime which can lead to a prison term.
All three had posted articles about sovereignty issues in the South China Sea, where Vietnam and China are engaged in a boundary dispute over the Spratley and Paracel archipelagos.
Both Wind Trader and Quynh had also written about a bauxite mining project which is controversial partly because a Chinese company has been granted a major contract.
'Growing commercial and diplomatic ties with China are particularly sensitive in Vietnam, given the two neighbouring countries' often antagonistic history,' the CPJ said in a statement.
Quynh's mother said that on July 20 she wore a T-shirt calling for the cancellation of the bauxite project and announcing Vietnamese sovereignty over the Paracels and Spratleys.
A foreign diplomat, who asked not to be named, said Quynh had gone 'a step further' than blogging by producing the T-shirts. The other blogger and journalist were also involved with the T-shirt venture, the diplomat said.
The detained VietnamNet reporter wrote in May that China 'possesses the conditions to become a regional hegemonist.' She had also shared sensitive information with bloggers and journalists about a Chinese official who called on his Vietnamese counterparts to discipline local newspapers and journalists, the CPJ said, citing the independent Free Journalists' Network of Vietnam.
Nobody at the Chinese embassy could be reached to comment on the allegation. -- AFP
