Vietnam jails Facebook user for 8 years over 'anti-state' postsHANOI: A court in Vietnam on Tuesday sentenced a man to eight years in prison after finding him guilty of uploading anti-state posts on his Facebook account, the security ministry said. Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and tolerates little criticism. Vuong was accused of livestreaming 110 hours of videos and writing 366 posts on his Facebook account to smear the image of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's founding leader, and spread anti-state propaganda, the ministry said. "Vietnam must recognise that expressing political views contrary to Communist Party line should not be a crime," he said in an email statement. Arrests of political activists in Vietnam have steadily increased since late last year as Vietnam gears up for a key Party congress in January 2021.

Source: Bangkok Post July 07, 2020 09:22 UTC