{"id":47930,"date":"2024-03-07T18:12:43","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T02:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sweet-pascal.52-27-215-206.plesk.page\/vietnam-police-confirm-arrests-of-two-activists\/"},"modified":"2024-03-07T18:12:43","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T02:12:43","slug":"vietnam-police-confirm-arrests-of-two-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/vietnam-police-confirm-arrests-of-two-activists\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam police confirm arrests of two activists"},"content":{"rendered":"
Vietnam\u2019s state-controlled media have finally broken the silence on the arrests of two famous human rights activists after police confirmed their detention.<\/span><\/p>\n The reports come a week after <\/span>Nguyen Chi Tuyen<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Nguyen Vu Binh<\/span><\/a> were taken in for questioning by the Hanoi police.<\/span><\/p>\n Tuyen, 50, is a social activist, regularly participating in protests about national sovereignty and environmental protection. He is best known for running two YouTube channels commenting on the issues, with around 160,000 followers.<\/span><\/p>\n Nguyen Vu Binh, 56, is a former editor of <\/span>T<\/span>ap Chi Cong San<\/span>, or Communist Review,<\/span> and a blogger for Radio Free Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n The Hanoi Police Security and Investigation Agency said on Feb. 29, they executed arrest and search warrants for the two men on charges of \u201cpropaganda against the state\u201d under Article 117 of the law.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>Voice of Vietnam<\/span><\/a> website said Tuyen repeatedly used Youtube and X to spread what it called \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n His wife, <\/span>Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet,<\/span> told RFA police did not give the family any documentation about the arrest of her husband.<\/span><\/p>\n She said during the house search, the police only read out the warrants, which she did not remember fully due to the stress of the occasion.<\/span><\/p>\n RFA\u2019s reporter could not contact Nguyen Vu Binh\u2019s family.<\/span><\/p>\n Nguyen Chi Tuyen shut down his two YouTube channels two years ago and switched to a new channel called AC Media to focus on reports about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A year ago Hanoi police questioned him about some old YouTube live streams and this January they banned him from leaving the country.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cVietnam must free bloggers Nguyen Chi Tuyen and Nguyen Vu Binh and cease its unremitting harassment of independent reporters,\u201d said Shawn Crispin, the <\/span>Committee to Protect Journalists<\/span><\/a>\u2019 Southeast Asia representative on Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s high time Vietnam stopped equating journalism with criminal behavior.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Vietnam was the fifth worst jailer of journalists worldwide, with at least 19 reporters arrested as of Dec. 1, 2023, according to CPJ\u2019s annual global prison <\/span>census<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n