(WAN/IFEX) – WAN issued the following press release on 7 May 1998: **Updates IFEX alerts of 25 January 1996, 4 March 1996, 29 January 1997 and 4 November 1997** The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) on Thursday, 7 May 1998, intensified its campaign to win the release of imprisoned Vietnamese editor and academic Doan Viet […]
(WAN/IFEX) – WAN issued the following press release on 7 May 1998:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 25 January 1996, 4 March 1996, 29 January 1997 and
4 November 1997**
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) on Thursday, 7 May 1998,
intensified its campaign to win the release of imprisoned Vietnamese editor
and academic Doan Viet Hoat, who is to receive the global newspaper group’s
annual press freedom prize early next month.
In letters to Vietnam’s leaders, WAN President Jayme Sirotsky urged Hanoi to
release Professor Doan, who is to receive the Golden Pen of Freedom before
an audience of over 1,000 editors and publishers at the World Newspaper
Congress in Kobe, Japan, on 1 June.
A similar letter, and information about Mr. Doan’s case, was posted on the
WAN website (www.fiej.org), along with an appeal to the world’s press and
other interested parties to send the letter to Vietnam’s leaders and join
the campaign for Mr. Doan’s release.
Professor Doan, editor and publisher of the pro-democracy newsletter “Dien
Dan Tu Do” (Freedom Forum), was sentenced in March 1993 to 20 years of hard
labour for his work with the newsletter. He is serving his sentence,
commuted to 15 years on appeal, in Thanh Cam prison.
Professor Doan is reportedly in poor health and suffers from kidney stones.
His three brothers tried to visit him on 5 February 1998, but were not
allowed to see him. The reason given by prison officials was that Professor
Hoat had made “very poor progress” in his “re-education.”
No independent source or family member has seen him since 1996.
“I respectfully remind you that Professor Doan has been imprisoned simply
for exercising his right to freedom of expression”, Mr. Sirotsky said in his
letters to President Tran Duc Luong, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, and
Communist Party Secretary General Le Kha Phieu.
WAN awarded its 1998 Golden Pen of Freedom to Professor Doan in recognition
of his courage in the struggle for freedom of expression and freedom of the
press in Vietnam. Presentation of the award is to be made at the 51st World
Newspaper Congress and 5th World Editors Forum, the annual meetings of the
world’s newspaper industry.
The events are being organised by the World Association of Newspapers — the
global association of the newspaper industry, representing 15,000 newspapers
world-wide — and the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association.
The Golden Pen of Freedom has been awarded annually since 1961 to recognise
the outstanding action, in writing or deed, of an individual, group or
institution in the cause of press freedom.
