<div>The police have forced Human Rights Watch to cancel a press conference launching a report about an ethnic minority persecuted by the Vietnamese government, claiming the content is sensitive to bilateral ties and a threat to national security.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The event was to take place at 10.30 am on 26 June at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Around ten uniformed police officers and eight plainclothes officers arrived at the FCCT, taking unsolicited pictures of attendees before releasing an official statement on the forced cancella </div>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-0b43c8fe-6c7c-bb72-37a9-df8cfe65773c">It was the artist Tran Luong and a red scarf. It does not take more to make the Vietnamese police raid the German cultural center in Hanoi. An interrupted installation in a space that is actually protected by diplomacy. I saw Tran Luong’s performance in full, uninterrupted, in Berlin, far away from the country he was from my interpretation commenting on by throwing a red scarf around, playing cheerfully with until the scarf tied his hands behind the back and he was unable to move.</span></p>

<div> <p>Reporters Without Borders regards a new law on blogs and social networks – announced on July 31st and due to take effect in september – as a gross violation of the right to inform and be informed.</p> <p>Known as <a href="http://www.chinhphu.vn/portal/page/portal/chinhphu/hethongvanban?class_id=1&amp;mode=detail&amp;document_id=168699" target="_blank">Decree 72</a>, the law restricts the use of blogs and social networks to “providing or exchanging personal information” and bans using them to share information from news sources.</p> <p></p></div>

<p>The upcoming&nbsp;visit to&nbsp;the United States&nbsp;by President Truong Tan Sang of Vietnam&nbsp;presents an opportunity for U.S. President&nbsp;Barack Obama to reiterate his Administration's position that Vietnam's "backsliding" on human rights is a stumbling block to expanded trade and security collaboration between the two countries. Likewise, this is&nbsp;an opportunity for the Vietnamese leadership to demonstrate their commitment to internationally recognized&nbsp;human rights.</p> <p></p>

<p><span>In an&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.nhandan.com.vn/chinhtri/binh-luan-phe-phan/item/19808302.html" target="_blank">article published online</a><span>&nbsp;on 14 March, the Vietnamese daily&nbsp;</span><i>Nhan Dan</i><span>criticized the fact that the 2013 Reporters Without Borders Netizen Prize was&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.rsf.org/reporters-without-borders-awards-07-03-2013,44178.html" target="_blank">awarded to the Vietnamese citizen-journalist and blogger&nbsp;<b>Huynh Ngoc Chenh</b></a><span>.</span></p> <p></p>

<p>Bangkok-Paris-Geneva, August 1, 2012. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint FIDH and OMCT programme, together with the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), call on the Vietnamese authorities to drop all charges against three pro-democracy bloggers and release them immediately and unconditionally. Mr. Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay), Mr. Phan Thanh Hai and Ms. Ta Phong Tan are scheduled to be tried by the Ho Chi Minh People&rsquo;s Court on August 7, 2012 at 8am.</p>

<p><span><span><span><em>Dialogue Planned for January 12 in Hanoi</em></span></span></span></p> <p>(New York, January 11, 2012) &ndash; The European Union should press Vietnam to release all political prisoners and to carry out concrete improvements in freedom of expression, assembly, association, and religion during a dialogue in Hanoi on January 12, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today in a memo to the EU.</p>

<p>Paris-Geneva-Bangkok, January 10, 2012. The first full-fledged human rights dialogue of the European Union with Viet Nam needs to be accompanied with the release of all human rights defenders currently imprisoned, in detention, or under house arrest, said the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT).</p>

<p>On 9 November 2011, Front Line, together with ACAT France, Access Now, ARTICLE 19, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Index on Censorship, and Reporters Without Borders submitted a letter to Hoang Chi Trung, Director-General of the Department of International Organisations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, calling for the release of more than 20 detained journalists, bloggers, and human rights defenders.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the sentencing today of two citizen radio journalists,</span><span>&nbsp;</span><strong>Vu Duc Trung</strong><span>&nbsp;</span><span>and his brother-in-law</span><span>&nbsp;</span><strong>Le Van Thanh</strong><span>, to prison terms of three years and two years respectively for</span><span>&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.rsf.org/viet-nam-two-radio-station-operators-to-be-05-04-2011,39961.html" target="_blank">illegally broadcasting radio programmes to China</a><span>.</span></p>

<p>On 4 October 2011, Front Line Defenders along with nine other international digital freedom and human rights organisations submitted a joint letter to H.E. Nguyen Tan Dung, the Prime Minister of Vietnam calling for the release of human rights defender Mr Pham Minh Hoang, who was sentenced to three years imprisonment on 10 August 2011.</p>

<p>Between 30 July and 16 August 2011, eight human rights defenders were arrested by police officers and officials of the Ministry of Public Security, and are currently being held incommunicado at an unknown location. Since their arrests, their fate and whereabouts are unknown. They are affiliated with the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Dong Chua Cuu) and are actively involved in the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights in Vietnam.</p>