Vietnam ranked “not free” in Freedom House’s 2022 internet freedom report

• Vietnam only scored 22 out of 100 on internet freedom, according to Freedom on the Net 2022, an annual report by Freedom House, a Washington D.C.-based nonpartisan organization dedicated to expanding democracy and freedom around the world. The Southeast Asian state’s ranking remains unchanged compared to the previous year. The scores of analyzed countries are based on a scale of 0 (least free) to 100 (most free).
• According to the key findings of the report, titled “Countering an Authoritarian Overhaul of the Internet,” and published on October 18, global internet freedom has declined for the 12th consecutive year while a large number of governments around the world are breaking up the global internet to gain more control over online spaces.
• On the other hand, the report also notes that a record 26 countries experienced improvements in internet freedom despite a global decline last year. Meanwhile, a coalition of democratic countries is increasing the promotion of human rights at multilateral forums in response to efforts by authoritarian states to propagate their model of digital control.
• Freedom House evaluates the state of internet freedom of each country based on three criteria: obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights. In the “obstacles to access” section, Vietnam scored 12 out of the total 25 points. It only scored six out of 35 regarding “limits on content,” and four out of 40 regarding “violations of user rights.”
• Vietnam fares better in terms of internet penetration rate and high level of internet access for most of its population. According to data from the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), the internet penetration rate was 71 by the end of 2021. Moreover, as of December 2021, 99.8 percent of Vietnam’s territory had a 4G signal, while 5G had been tested in 16 provinces.
• Nonetheless, the Vietnamese government has ordered foreign media platforms to remove unfavorable content and enforced restrictions on the free flow of online content. The government has also sought to manipulate public opinion by deploying an online task force to spread propaganda and counter criticisms targeting the regime. At the same time, online critics and human rights defenders continue to be harassed, intimidated and arrested because of their social media posts.

Vietnamese land rights activist Trinh Ba Tu denied family visits twice this month

• RFA reported that Vietnamese land rights activist Trinh Ba Tu, who is serving an eight-year sentence on “anti-State” charges, was twice denied family visitations this month. The prison authorities told Tu’s father, Trinh Ba Khiem, that his son was “being disciplined for writing false accusations,” but they did not provide any details of his writing.
• Khiem said that he went to Nghe An Province Prison No. 6 to visit his son, but his request was denied. A correctional officer who supervises Tu’s prison area told Khiem that his son’s health was “normal.” Khiem added that he was worried about Tu’s health since, during a visit last month, he had learnt that his son had been beaten and left in solitary confinement for 10 days with his feet shackled.
• Trinh Ba Tu was also reportedly on a hunger strike. “On September 20, Trinh Ba Tu said he had been on a hunger strike for 14 days,” Khiem said. “Since that day, I have not heard any news […], and I do not know if he has discontinued his hunger strike or not.”
• Last month, shortly after returning from prison, Khiem filed a petition to the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security to request an investigation into his son’s beating, but he has received no response. RFA called the Nghe An prison on October 17 to verify Khiem’s claims, but no one answered the phone.

Rights groups call on the UN secretary-general to urge Vietnam to release 4 NGO leaders

• On October 20, a coalition of 15 human rights organizations sent a joint letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, ahead of his visit to Vietnam on October 21, calling on him to urge Hanoi to release four environmental defenders, Nguy Thi Khanh, Dang Dinh Bach, Mai Phan Loi, and Bach Hung Duong, who are imprisoned on the charges of “tax evasion.” Independent observers believe that their convictions are politically motivated.
• The letter noted that the persecution of these four environmental defenders “is only the tip of Vietnam’s broader crackdown on dissent.” Vietnam is currently imprisoning hundreds of political prisoners, with many being convicted under the vague and controversial Article 117 and Article 331 of the Penal Code.
• Many prisoners of conscience are also “subjected to prolonged periods of incommunicado detention, and denied access to legal counsel and family visitation, often while being subjected to willful neglect or mistreatment,” the letter added. The joint letter also reminded Vietnam, recently elected to the UN Human Rights Council, that “it has an obligation to uphold the highest human rights standards.”
• Guterres arrived in Hanoi on October 21, beginning his two-day official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The UN secretary-general met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on October 22, with both sides emphasizing the importance of cooperation to ensure food and energy security, fight climate change, promote human rights, and develop digital technology, among other issues, according to Vietnam’s State-owned media.
• “The UN leader wants to talk in Hanoi about climate change policies, but how can Vietnam really move forward when it is busy jailing key civil society partners who are critical to national efforts to stop global warming?” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, in an interview with RFA. “This contradiction cannot stand, and the UN needs to tell the Vietnamese government that it must end its repression of civil society organizations and NGO leaders.”

What’s Behind Vietnam’s Latest Anti-Corruption Fight

Bloomberg:

“Vietnam’s Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong has likened his anti-graft campaign to a “blazing furnace,” one that’s caught hundreds of senior officials, business executives and others in its blast over the years. While the country’s position has improved by more than 30 spots over the past decade on a global corruption perception index, it was still at 87th place last year out of 180 ranked. Now as Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy seeks to bolster its appeal as a destination for foreign investment in the midst of mounting trade tensions between the US and China, the fight seems to be flaring again.”