Hanoi Police Beat Activists Before Releasing Reporters of Conscience TV Channel

Reporter Le Yen at one of broadcasts

Reporter Le Yen at one of broadcasts

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.

By Vu Quoc Ngu, September 24, 2015

Security forces in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi have brutally beaten local activists before releasing six other individuals who are said to involve in producing and launching of  an independent television channel Luong Tam TV or Conscience TV.

Authorities in Hai Ba Trung district police on evening of September 23 deployed numerous policemen and thugs to suppress a group of about two dozens activists coming to demand for unconditional release of Nguyen Vu Binh, Le Yen, Le Thu Ha, Nguyen Manh Cuong, Pham Dac Dat and Tran Duc Thinh, who were detained by local police in the morning.

When the activists gathered in a front of the district police headquater, police demanded them to leave the areas and when they refused, security forces and thugs attacked them, violently dispersed the crowd. Policemen severely beat a number of activists, including female bloggers Doan Trang and Thao Gao.

Before attacking activists, police blocked streets leading to the police building.

Despite facing suppression of police, more and more people came to support activists who hang banners requesting Hanoi police to free the six detained individuals.

At mid night, police released Binh, Yen, Ha, Cuong, Dat and Thinh. Their detentions were said to be linked with the recent launching of making and broadcasting Luong Tam 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, appearing in Luong Tam TV Channel as a reporter and editor, was arrested in her private house in Cau Giay district in early morning of September 23. Mr. Binh, a former political prisoner, said police detained him and confiscated a number of his items, including camera and laptop. Others said they were arrested on streets.

During the detentions, police officers questioned them about their roles in making and launching three editions of Luong Tam TV.

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.

Local activists said the Luong Tam TV Channel has issued three broadcasts which are circulated in Youtube, every of which lasts about eight minutes.

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

 

 

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 in Hanoi 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.