Vietnam Convicts Facebook Blogger Who Criticized Government

Vietnam News Agency/AFP/Getty Images Blogger Dinh Nhat Uy, 30, stands for trial at a local People's Court in the southern city of Long An on Oct. 29, 2013.

Vietnam News Agency/AFP/Getty Images
Blogger Dinh Nhat Uy, 30, stands for trial at a local People’s Court in the southern city of Long An on Oct. 29, 2013.

Bloomberg News | Oct 30, 2013

A blogger who posted criticism of the Vietnamese government on Facebook (FB) was handed a suspended 15-month prison sentence by a court in the southern province of Long An.

Dinh Nhat Uy, 30, said he was convicted of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state. He used Facebook to campaign for the release of his younger brother, imprisoned for using social media for political commentary, according to Human Rights Watch. Uy, who was arrested June 15, faced a three-year prison sentence.

Vietnam’s Communist government has jailed bloggers and activists it accuses of spreading anti-government propaganda while passing an Internet decree that has drawn international criticism for stifling online expression. In August a coalition of 21 governments said the Internet law may threaten the country’s push to develop its technology industry. Go to original article…