Vietnam jails bloggers so much it rivals China ...
… and yet they keep speaking out.
Aija Salovaara - 04.09.2014 - HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Endless lines of scooters zoom along avenues crowded with cars and trucks. Street vendors bustle around their stalls. It’s a regular, sunny morning in Vietnam’s largest city.
But in a quiet corner of a Starbucks where friends chat over lattes, a handful of men and women sit in a circle, grousing about their government.
“We came here since it is an international chain,” says 30-something blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh. “If we would meet in a local bar, the police would immediately shut it down to prevent us from having the meeting.”
In Vietnam, where the Communist Party is the sole legal political group, authorities strictly control the media. But the internet — and social media in particular — have sparked a peaceful explosion in dissident activity.
… and yet they keep speaking out.
Aija Salovaara - 04.09.2014 - HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Endless lines of scooters zoom along avenues crowded with cars and trucks. Street vendors bustle around their stalls. It’s a regular, sunny morning in Vietnam’s largest city.
But in a quiet corner of a Starbucks where friends chat over lattes, a handful of men and women sit in a circle, grousing about their government.
“We came here since it is an international chain,” says 30-something blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh. “If we would meet in a local bar, the police would immediately shut it down to prevent us from having the meeting.”
In Vietnam, where the Communist Party is the sole legal political group, authorities strictly control the media. But the internet — and social media in particular — have sparked a peaceful explosion in dissident activity.
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