Vietnamese Citizen Journalist Sentenced to Jail for Advocating for Land Petitioners

Description

Tuyen Quang People’s Court in northern Vietnam sentenced Le Manh Ha, a citizen journalist and land petitioner, to eight years in prison on charges of “making, storing and distributing anti-State materials,” violating Article 117 of the Penal Code on 25th October 2022. Ha, 52, has actively campaigned against the relocation of farmers in Tuyen Quang Province due to the construction of a major hydroelectric project in the area. In 2018, Ha founded a YouTube channel called Tieng Dan (Voice of the People), where he interviewed and reported the stories of many land rights petitioners who lost their land to the developers of government-approved projects.

Information
Number of attacked persons or entities related to media
1
Do they work as freelance or media?
No
Position in media
Status of journalists
Gender
Male
Age
Country
Vietnam
Full name or name of group
Identified
The name of perpetrator (individual/group)
Government
Gender
Attack mention about gender background/sexual wording?
No
Date of incident
Year of incident
2022
Type of incident
Criminal lawsuit/charge: Other charge