Cablegate: Blogger and Journalist Released

VZCZCXRO0195
OO RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHPB
DE RUEHHI #0926 2511018
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O R 081016Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0122
INFO ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 0020

UNCLAS HANOI 000926

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL VM
SUBJECT: Blogger and Journalist Released

REF: HANOI 805, HANOI 807

1. (SBU) Prominent blogger Bui Thanh Hieu (penname "Wind Trader")
and VietNamNet journalist Pham Doan Tran were released from police
custody September 6. As reported in reftels, the two had been
arrested in connection with efforts to print a sizeable quantity of
T-shirts with anti-Chinese slogans. Media reports speculated that
the release was related to General Secretary Nong Duc Manh's
September 6-9 visit to Australia and New Zealand; however, an
Australian embassy officer responsible for coordinating the visit
indicated that the Australian government had not directly asked for
their release. A third individual, blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh,
was arrested by local authorities September 2 -- also in connection
with the T-shirts -- and still remains in custody, according to
press accounts quoting her mother.

2. (SBU) Comment: Vietnam's relationship with China remains,
perennially, a sensitive topic. But apart from this, the arrest of
the three individuals on what, after all, would appear to be rather
silly grounds also underscores a more general and apparently
growing anxiety within the CPV leadership about politically charged
online commentary, particularly in advance of the January 2011
Party Congress.
MICHALAK

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