Vietnam
Government suppresses two controversial political blogsPosted Feb 23 2010
After continued cyber attacks on two blogs that criticized the government, the Vietnamese government shut down the Blogosin and Bauxite Vietnam Web sites.
According to the AP, “both sites were generally restrained in tone, and neither had called for an end to Vietnam’s single-party system.”
Bauxite Vietnam had moved to Blogspot and Wordpress following anonymous “denial of service” attacks to its Web site that persisted throughout December.
After Blogosin was hacked last week, founder Truong Huy San wrote on a new Web site that he would be abandoning the blog.
The Committee to Protect Journalists named Vietnam one of the worst countries to be a blogger in 2009.
According to Shawn Crispin, CPJ's Southeast Asia senior representative, the Vietnamese government promotes Internet usage while still suppressing those who write about controversial issues and government policies.
“Bloggers like Truong Huy San and (Bauxite Vietnam's) Nguyen Hue Chi are doing no more than exercising their rights to freedom of expression as enshrined in the country’s constitution,” he said. “They should be allowed to write and post without fear.”
Truong formerly wrote for Saigon Tiep Thi, a state-owned daily newspaper. However, he was fired from his position after criticizing the former USSR, an ally for Vietnam during the Cold War, and for condemning Vietnam's now close relationship with China, a long-time enemy.
Nyugen helped to found Bauxite Vietnam to raise awareness of a Chinese mining project in Vietnam that has provided jobs to Chinese immigrants, even as unemployment for Vietnamese citizens is rising.