Catholic sites blocked in Vietnam
Emily Nguyen8/5/2009
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Catholic sites which help to uncover the persecution against Catholics in Vietnam have become the latest casualties of the government severe censorship. It has been known that VietCatholic News has long been on top of the list for being blocked from domestic viewers, but recently readers from Vietnam have reported that as of now, the leading sites of Catholics around the world including Asia-News, Catholic Online, Catholic News Agency, Catholic World News and Independent Catholic News all have become the latest victims of Vietnam government's censorship.

Vietnam strictly regulates Internet access to its citizens, using both legal and technical means. The collaborative project OpenNet Initiative classifies Vietnam's level of online political censorship to be "pervasive" while Reporters without Borders considers Vietnam one of 15 "internet enemies". While the government of Vietnam claims to safeguard the country against obscene or sexually-explicit content to justify its blocking efforts, but in reality most of the filtered sites contain politically or religiously sensitive materials that have been observed as undermining the Communist Party's hold on power while porn sites can be accessed unrestrictedly.

Also, Amnesty International reported many instances of Internet activists being arrested for their online activities.

OpenNet research found that blocking is concentrated on websites with contents about overseas political opposition, overseas and independent media, human rights, and religious topics. Proxies and circumvention tools, which are illegal to use, are also frequently blocked.

Initially, the majority of blocked websites are specific to Vietnam: those written in Vietnamese or dealing with issues related to Vietnam. Sites not specifically related to Vietnam or only written in English are rarely blocked. However, recently popular Catholic sites in English which with high rate of readership have also been added to the black list along with websites of human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Writers Without Borders, Amnesty International and other right groups to name a few.

On July 21, Asia-News dropped the bombshell about events that have been taking place in Vietnam in recent weeks, including widespread reports on ruthless persecutions of Catholics throughout the country. AsiaNews published a very lengthy report which went on for several days, noting that, “On July 20, 2009 police in Quang Binh province launched a surprised attack on the unarmed parishioners of Tam Toa - a struggling parish of the diocese of Vinh in Central Vietnam - when these Catholics were erecting a makeshift tent as a temporary place for worshiping services. The assault resulted in hundreds being injured, and dozens were taken away in police vehicles and detained indefinitely.”

In following days, says the report, “series of articles on almost every state media outlets filled with false accusations against the victims flooded the newsstands, putting Tam Toa parish in spot light extremely unfavorable to them. This time the victims have been portrayed as stubborn, organized criminals who were out to disturb and destroy the national security and the integrity of the state. Their fate now is in limbo as no one knows their whereabouts and how badly they have suffered in the hands of this ruthless regime. Respected, devoted priests were not excluded and two priests in the central coastal city of Dong Hoi were badly beaten and left in critical condition.”

The report didn't seem to be acceptable to the Vietnam government which is the exclusive owner of a massive network of monopoly media which composed of more than 600 outlets, all are working under strict guidance and supervision of the ruling Party, all would have to obey the strict media rules and regulations set out for them or face severe consequences up to and including to withdraw permission of publishing. Since Vietnam has not been used to adverse news coming from a foreign, popular source they are apparently not happy with reports on an ongoing situation of abuse and persecution of Catholics. Action they took to make sure the Vietnamese public is shielded from the news is extreme though not unexpected for those who have live under dictatorial, communist regimes such as China or Vietnam.

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