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.

The joint letter, which was also submitted to the US Assistant Secretary of State, Michael Posner, and US Deputy Secretary of State, Bill Burns, was sent prior to the commencement of the US - Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue. Front Line and the six other human rights organisations expressed their “serious concern over the lack of freedom of expression and information in Vietnam”.

The letter outlines the contradiction between the statements issued by the Vietnamese authorities based on the Constitution and the real situation on the ground, where journalists writing about human rights and democracy are arrested and tortured. The letter ends by calling on the Vietnamese authorities to extend amnesty to all political prisoners, including human rights defenders Paulus Le Son and Pham Minh Hoang.

Front Line has previously taken action on behalf of Paulus Le Son and Pham Minh Hoang. For further information on these cases, please see the most recent updates, available at http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/16039 and http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/15615 respectively.

To read the joint letter, please see the attached document.