In a 28 December 1999 letter to the secretary-general of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Le Kha Phieu, RSF protested against the pressure on Hung Pham The, a reporter with Radio France Internationale (RFI). The journalist has been ordered to leave the country. According to RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard, this “expulsion that dares not speak its […]
In a 28 December 1999 letter to the secretary-general of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Le Kha Phieu, RSF protested against the pressure on Hung Pham The, a reporter with Radio France Internationale (RFI). The journalist has been ordered to leave the country. According to RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard, this “expulsion that dares not speak its name” is an obvious impediment to foreign journalists’ right to work freely in Vietnam.” Reminding the Vietnamese official that the journalist was merely exercising his right to inform the public, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Vietnam has ratified, RSF called for “an end to the control of foreign journalists and for liberalisation of the country’s press laws”.
According to RSF’s information, on 25 December, Hung Pham The, a reporter with the French station RFI, was asked by Vietnamese authorities to leave the country. When he arrived in Hanoi on 21 December, the journalist had produced a series of reports on the Roman Catholic community in Vietnam to mark the Jubilee, and on ruling reforms in the country. According to the authorities, Hung Pham The met three people from Hanoi’s Catholic community who did not figure on the programme negotiated before he was granted a visa.
