From Reuters
Vietnam will hand out fines of 100 million dong ($4,740) to anyone criticizing the government on social media, under a new law announced this week, the latest measure in a widening crackdown on dissent by the country’s communist rulers.
Vietnamese Internet activist Nguyen Lan Thang looks at a Facebook page at a cafe in Hanoi November 27, 2013. CREDIT: REUTERS/KHAM
Comments that did not constitute criminal offences would trigger fines if held to be “propaganda against the state”, or spreading “reactionary ideology”, according to the law signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
Vietnam has repeatedly drawn fire for the harsh treatment and lengthy jail terms it has given to bloggers who criticized its one-party regime. The number of arrests and convictions has soared in the last four years.
The new decree is vaguely worded and did not say what comments amounted to a criminal offence, which can be punished with prison, or an “administrative violation” that rates a fine.
Internet penetration is soaring in a country of an estimated 90 million people, a third of whom use the internet and about 20 million of whom have Facebook accounts, a report published at a seminar on information technology in Saigon in September showed.
A Vietnamese Facebook user who campaigned online for the release of his brother jailed for criticizing the government fell afoul of the same law and was last month sentenced to 15 months of house arrest.
Read the full story from Reuters.
