Vietnam Arrests Second Blogger in One Week

Nhà văn Nguyễn Quang Lập, chủ trang Quê Choa, vừa bị bắt hôm 6/12

Nhà văn Nguyễn Quang Lập, chủ trang Quê Choa, vừa bị bắt hôm 6/12

by KTT, Dec 8, 2014

Defend the Defenders

Vietnam’s police have arrested another prominent blogger for running a blog containing articles “against the state”, the second person within a week, according reports by foreign media.
Nguyen Quang Lap, 58, was put into custody after the local police searched his home in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday [Dec 6] for posting his own writings and other people’s articles criticizing local authorities.
AFP said that the blog’s covers news protesting against China, which reflected widespread animosity among many Vietnamese, including intellectuals.
According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the newest article posted on his blog was related to China, titled “Why should Vietnam be vigilant of the Confucian Institute?”
Mr. Lap is a famous writer who had many works published officially. His blog Que Choa has caught public attention widely while his Facebook account has nearly 15,000 followers.
Earlier, Hong Le Tho, 65, a Vietnamese-Japanese professor who was detained on Nov 29 had run an unofficial information portal containing anti-China articles.

Mr. Tho is a great intellectual who has published many books including those published in Japan on Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracels) and Truong Sa (Spratlys), the two archipelagoes seized and under risks of invasion by China.