Hanoi (AsiaNews /
Agencies) - Vietnamese police arrested a blogger charged with having published
a post containing "erroneous and slanderous" information against the
communist government in Hanoi. Official
state media reported the arrest this morning, according to which this is the
third online activist jailed in less than a month, confirming the authorities
clampdown on online dissent.
The
30 year-old blogger and activist Dinh Nhat Uy, a native of the southern
province of Long An, was picked up by the police on 15 June, and accused of
"abusing democratic freedoms", a crime punishable by prison sentences
of up to seven years. He
is the owner of a computer repair shop. His
articles have "slandered the good name of the government agencies."
His
brother Nguyen Dinh Kha, a 25 year-old university student, was
arrested and sentenced last month to eight years in prison for
"propaganda against the state". The
young man distributed anti-government leaflets, in which he called for protest
against the growing influence of China in the internal affairs of Vietnam.
In
the last three weeks two other bloggers were arrested on the same charges used
to stop the two brothers: Former
government official and blogger Pham Viet Dao, 61, and journalist and blogger
Duy Nhat Truong. To
date, Vietnam's communist authorities have detained at least 46 between
Internet and pro-democracy activists, a number far greater than those prosecuted
for violating national security laws in 2012.
Critics
accuse the government of exploiting security laws to stop dissent. Hanoi
- the focus of criticism from human rights activists, NGOs and foreign
governments - responds that "no one" is detained for expressing their
ideas in a peaceful manner, only those who "break the law".