Vietnam Imprisons Journalist for Criticizing Government on Facebook

The detention of influential journalist highlights ongoing crackdown on dissent in the one-party state.

A Vietnamese court has sentenced Truong Huy San, a prominent journalist, to two and a half years in prison for "abusing democratic freedoms" through a series of Facebook posts critical of the government. San, who is better known by his pen name Huy Duc, was arrested in June and faced charges related to 13 specific posts made on his personal social media account between 2015 and 2024. These posts were alleged to have "negatively impacted state interests" and infringed upon the rights of individuals and organizations, according to state media outlets.

Family members of San were barred from attending the court proceedings, drawing significant attention from international human rights advocates and journalists alike. His case serves as a critical indicator of the current climate for freedom of expression in Vietnam, a nation that has been promoting itself as a developing and modern society while simultaneously intensifying its censorship of dissenting voices.

One of the contentious posts that contributed to San’s conviction criticized the nation's approach to law enforcement, with a sentiment captured in a now-deleted post stating, "A COUNTRY CANNOT DEVELOP BASED ON FEAR." Before his arrest, San had amassed a following of approximately 370,000 people on Facebook.

Shawn Crispin, the senior Southeast Asia representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, pointed out that San’s conviction stemmed from his efforts to gather and disseminate independent news — an act that is criminalized by the Vietnamese government. The case encapsulates the ongoing struggle for press freedoms in Vietnam, where independent journalism is increasingly seen as a threat to state authority.