In the afternoon of November 16, 2017, the Vietnamese police kidnapped a member of The Vietnamese’s editorial board, Pham Doan Trang, almost immediately after she had left the meeting with the EU delegation in Hanoi held earlier that day.

The police had illegally seized her personal property, including her cell phone and laptop, and kept them since. Pham Doan Trang was held incommunicado during the entire detention, and legal representation was not allowed.