Despite multiple dangers awaiting them, Catholics have filed a law suit against state-own media outlets seeking justification for their true and correct pleas and punitive damages for their mental anguish state media's false reports had caused them.
On Dec 8, 2008, eight Catholic defendants from Thai Ha parish, archdiocese of Hanoi accused of "disorderly conduct" and "damaging state's property", were brought to trial and received stayed sentences for the alleged crimes. The defendants, however, had become irate after learning that the true account of the trial proceeding has been distorted and published shamelessly by the state media, namely the New Hanoi News and Vietnam Television 1.
Nguyen Thi Viet, 54 yrs old and Ngo Thi Dung, 60 yrs old, both from Hanoi have filed a law suit against the two news giants in Vietnam for falsifying the information they obtained from the trial, a gross violation of professional ethics and distortion of the defendants' true pleas.
According to the complaint against the Television station and the News agency, at the December 8 trial all defendants pleaded not guilty for the crime and insisted that their actions were justified and legal as they viewed "praying and smashing up the wall illegally erected right on our Church's property was the right thing to do and it wasn't in violation of the law", referring to the incident on August 15, 2008 at the praying vigil at Thai Ha parish. The New Hanoi newspaper and their online edition, however, reported on Dec 12 that "all defendants had admitted their guilt, acknowledging that they had done wrongful things in violation of the law". Vietnam Television 1 was to report the same falsified information on Dec 18, 2008 without any regard for the truth many witness had seen and recorded from inside the court room on Dec 8.
The two defendants ask for an apology from the two respondents along with corrections made public, and a compensation for the mental damages they suffered from the negative publicity of the trial as a result of the false reporting, quoting it would be “derogatory to the dignity, honor and reputation of each one of the defendants".
Knowing full well that asking the government owned news media to report the truth that are contradictory with the state's interest can be a tough challenge if not an impossible thing to do, but the two defendants feel obligated to let the public know what truly happened inside the People's Court that day, with the hope that these law suits will set precedent for other people who were victims of the state media's unethical practice to come forward and defend their true version of what happened in court and stop letting (the state media) manipulate the outcome of any case.
On Dec 8, 2008, eight Catholic defendants from Thai Ha parish, archdiocese of Hanoi accused of "disorderly conduct" and "damaging state's property", were brought to trial and received stayed sentences for the alleged crimes. The defendants, however, had become irate after learning that the true account of the trial proceeding has been distorted and published shamelessly by the state media, namely the New Hanoi News and Vietnam Television 1.
Nguyen Thi Viet, 54 yrs old and Ngo Thi Dung, 60 yrs old, both from Hanoi have filed a law suit against the two news giants in Vietnam for falsifying the information they obtained from the trial, a gross violation of professional ethics and distortion of the defendants' true pleas.
According to the complaint against the Television station and the News agency, at the December 8 trial all defendants pleaded not guilty for the crime and insisted that their actions were justified and legal as they viewed "praying and smashing up the wall illegally erected right on our Church's property was the right thing to do and it wasn't in violation of the law", referring to the incident on August 15, 2008 at the praying vigil at Thai Ha parish. The New Hanoi newspaper and their online edition, however, reported on Dec 12 that "all defendants had admitted their guilt, acknowledging that they had done wrongful things in violation of the law". Vietnam Television 1 was to report the same falsified information on Dec 18, 2008 without any regard for the truth many witness had seen and recorded from inside the court room on Dec 8.
The two defendants ask for an apology from the two respondents along with corrections made public, and a compensation for the mental damages they suffered from the negative publicity of the trial as a result of the false reporting, quoting it would be “derogatory to the dignity, honor and reputation of each one of the defendants".
Knowing full well that asking the government owned news media to report the truth that are contradictory with the state's interest can be a tough challenge if not an impossible thing to do, but the two defendants feel obligated to let the public know what truly happened inside the People's Court that day, with the hope that these law suits will set precedent for other people who were victims of the state media's unethical practice to come forward and defend their true version of what happened in court and stop letting (the state media) manipulate the outcome of any case.