A lawyer in Vietnam has been jailed for four years for posting
articles on the Internet which criticised the government's handling
of a border dispute with China.
Le Chi Quang was arrested at an Internet cafe in the capital Hanoi
in February and charged with "propaganda against the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam" under Article 88 of the country's criminal
code.
Between April 2001 and February 2002, Quang published several
articles on the Internet, the most prominent being an article
called "Beware of the Northern Dynasty", which dealt with three
border agreements signed in 1999 and 2000 between Vietnam and
China, under which Vietnamese territory was ceded.
The government-run Vietnam News Agency said, "Quang was caught
red-handed on 21 February while posting on the Internet documents
with content against the Vietnamese state. Investigators seized
self-made documents with their contents distorting the [Communist]
Party and government's guidelines and policies."
Amnesty International has called for Quang's release, saying he had
been jailed for "peaceful exercise of his fundamental rights to
freedom of expression and association".
Vietnam recently issued regulations for people wanting to publish
information on the Internet in Vietnam, including the need to
obtain a licence from the Ministry of Culture and Information
beforehand and to identify clearly on each Web site all the people
who have contributed material.