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| From left to right: Nguyen Huu Vinh, Vu Quoc Tu, Pham Minh Hoang |
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| Huynh Ngoc Tuan (left), Huynh Thuc Vy (right) |
“Like other Vietnamese exercising their right to free expression, many of the country’s growing corps of bloggers are increasingly threatened, assaulted, or even jailed for peacefully expressing their views,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, which administers the annual Hellman/Hammett awards. “By recognizing these five brave men and women, who have already suffered much and face on-going threats to their basic rights, we are honored to amplify the voices the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party wants to prevent from participating in public discussions of Vietnam’s many social and political problems.”
This year’s Vietnamese award-winners reflect the diversity of sectors in Vietnamese society whose critical and concerned voices the government wishes to silence: advocate of religious freedom Nguyen Huu Vinh (who blogs as J.B Nguyen Huu Vinh); rights defender Pham Minh Hoang (who blogs as Phan Kien Quoc); freelance journalist Vu Quoc Tu (known as Uyen Vu); novelist Huynh Ngoc Tuan; and the youthful political, social commentator Huynh Thuc Vy. All five have been persecuted for their writings.
Human Rights Watch said that the Vietnamese government systematically suppresses freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and persecutes those who question government policies, expose official corruption, or call for democratic alternatives to one-party rule. Writers and bloggers often face lengthy prison terms imposed by “people’s courts,” temporary police detention and onerous interrogation, intrusive surveillance by various authorities, restrictions on domestic travel and prohibitions on leaving the country, beatings by security officials and anonymous thugs, fines, and denial of opportunities for livelihood.
On December 16, 2012, the police at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh city prohibited blogger Huynh Trong Hieu from leaving Vietnam for the United States to receive the 2012 Hellman/Hammett awards on behalf of his father, Huynh Ngoc Tuan, and his sister Huynh Thuc Vy, and confiscated his passport. According to the police, they acted upon a request from the police of Quang Nam province where the Huynh family resides. Two other 2012 Hellman/Hammett recipients, bloggers Nguyen Huu Vinh and Vu Quoc Tu, have been also prohibited from leaving the country (Nguyen Huu Vinh in August 2012 and Vu Quoc Tu in May 2010). Blogger Pham Minh Hoang is serving a three-year probation term, which restricts his movement within his residential ward.
In a recent case, the three founders of Vietnam’s Club of Free Journalistsand former Hellman/Hammett awardees, Nguyen Van Hai (who blogs as Dieu Cay), Ta Phong Tan, and Phan Thanh Hai (who blogs as Anhbasg), were sentenced to imprisonmenton September 24, 2012, for “propaganda against the state.” That same month, politically beleaguered Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered the Ministry of Public Security to target blogs and websites not approved by the authorities, punish those who create them, and prohibit state employees to read and/or disseminate information published on these websites.
“As Vietnam’s government escalates its repression of an increasingly outspoken online community, it is more important than ever for the world to celebrate the work of the five Vietnamese recipients of this year’s Hellman/Hammett awards,” Adams said. “The world’s democracies should not just continue with business as usual in Vietnam. Instead, they should make the release of all writers and political prisoners a condition of good relations.”
Human Rights Watch also commemorated the life and work of the 1994 Hellman/Hammett award winning poet Nguyen Chi Thien, who died in exile on October 2, 2012. Revered as one of Vietnam’s greatest political poets, Nguyen Chi Thien symbolized personal courage and determination despite every effort by Vietnamese authorities to silence him over many decades. Nguyen Chi Thien was first detained in 1960 for questioning the Communist Party’s version of history. In 1979, during one of his brief periods of freedom, he barged his way into the British embassy in Hanoi to make available to the world hundreds of poems he had composed in his head and memorized while previously in detention, knowing that he would be arrested again. The poems were published under the title “Flowers from Hell,” becoming a worldwide literary sensation as he indeed languished in another series of Vietnamese jails.
About the Hellman/Hammett Awards
The Hellman/Hammett awards are given annually to writers around the world who have been targets of political persecution or human rights abuses. A distinguished selection committee awards the cash grants to honor and assist writers whose work and activities have been suppressed by repressive government policies.
The grants are named for the American playwright Lillian Hellman and her longtime companion, the novelist Dashiell Hammett. Both were questioned by US congressional committees about their political beliefs and affiliations during the aggressive anti-communist investigations inspired by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. Hellman suffered professionally and had trouble finding work. Hammett spent time in prison.
In 1989, the trustees appointed in Hellman’s will asked Human Rights Watch to devise a program to help writers who were targeted for expressing views that their governments oppose, for criticizing government officials or actions, or for writing about subjects that their governments did not want reported.
Over the past 23 years, more than 750 writers from 92 countries have received Hellman/Hammett grants of up to US$10,000 each, totaling more than $3 million. The program also gives small emergency grants to writers who have an urgent need to leave their country or who need immediate medical treatment after serving prison terms or enduring torture.
“The Hellman/Hammett grants aim to help writers who have suffered because they published information or expressed ideas that criticize policy or offend people in power,” said Lawrence Moss, coordinator of the Hellman/Hammett grant program. “Many of the writers honored by these grants share a common purpose with Human Rights Watch: to protect the rights of vulnerable people by shining a light on abuses and building pressure for change.”
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