(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders notes that the Vietnamese authorities have denied the arrest of a fourth user of the discussion forum Paltalk, which the organisation first reported in a 16 March 2006 release. “We are pleased that the Vietnamese government has finally agreed to provide information on his case. We urge them to do […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders notes that the Vietnamese authorities have denied the arrest of a fourth user of the discussion forum Paltalk, which the organisation first reported in a 16 March 2006 release.
“We are pleased that the Vietnamese government has finally agreed to provide information on his case. We urge them to do the same for the three other ‘Paltalk Internet users’ who our sources tell us were arrested in Ho Chi Minh City at the end of October 2005,” it added.
“In fact, the authorities are denying this fourth arrest, but have never confirmed or denied the arrests of Truong Quoc Tuan, Truong Quoc Huy and Lisa Pham.”
RSF adds that the authorities have twice refused to issue visas to its staff who were seeking to enter the country to discuss freedom of expression on the Internet. “We are therefore wary of this new policy of ‘transparency’, which seems to us to be very selective,” it said.
The press freedom organisation posted, on 16 March, an audio recording on its website of police arresting the Internet user in a cybercafé after he joined a discussion on the Paltalk forum. The forum’s administrator, under the pseudonym Vuong Bat Nha, has confirmed that the recording was genuine.
In its release, Reporters Without Borders said it did not know the name of the arrested man or if he was still being held.
More details : http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16766
