Hanoi Police Arrest Group of Activists in Relations with Unsanctioned Human Right TV Channel

Reporter Le Yen at one of Luong Tam TV broadcast

Reporter Le Yen at one of Luong Tam TV broadcasts

The arrested are Le Yen, Le Thu Ha, Nguyen Vu Binh, Nguyen Manh Cuong, Pham Dac Dat and Tran Duc Thinh. Their detentions were said to be involved in making Luong Tam (Conscience) TV Channel which debuted on August 19, the first kind of a television channel which reports human rights violation in the communist nation in Southeast Asia.

By Vu Quoc Ngu, September 23, 2015

Security forces in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi on September 23 arrested a group of six local activists involving in a recently-launched television channel on human rights.

The arrested are Le Yen, Le Thu Ha, Nguyen Vu Binh, Nguyen Manh Cuong, Pham Dac Dat and Tran Duc Thinh. Their detentions were said to be involved in making Luong Tam (Conscience) TV Channel which debuted on August 19, the first kind of a television channel which reports human rights violation in the communist nation in Southeast Asia.

Yen, 23, appeared in Luong Tam TV Channel as a reporter and editor, was arrested in her private house in Cau Giay district. Mr. Binh, a former political prisoner, was said to be detained from his house in Hai Ba Trung district while others were arrested on streets.

However, police has not issued any arrest warranty so no official accusation was being made.

All of the detained activists are members of the unsanctioned Brotherhood of Democracy, a pro-democracy group which advocates for multi-party democracy and human rights enhancement in Vietnam which has been ruled by communists for decades.

When friends of the arrested  and other activists came to Hai Ba Trung district police headquarter which likely hold them, police officers rejected to provide information about them.

According to local activists, the Luong Tam TV Channel has issued three broadcasts, every of which lasts about ten minutes.

(You can see all three broadcasts of Luong Tam TV Channel by following links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfan581vUqY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=442D5NfoKQk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJELyRQ1Kis)

Vietnam has over seven hundreds of newspapers and nearly one hundred of television channels but all of them are under close supervision of the communist party’s Commission for Propaganda and Education and the Ministry of Information and Communication.

The communist government has strived not to allow establishment of private newspapers and other broadcast means.

It has intensified political crackdown against local political dissidents and human rights activists ahead of the 12th National Congress of the ruling party slated in early 2016.