Committee to Protect Journalists, Statement on Arrest of Pham Chi Dung, November 2019

Take action with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) for Pham Chi Dung, journalist and well-known dissident who was arrested on November 21, 2019. Share this statement, urging authorities to free him and drop all charges against him.

He is charged under Article 117 of Vietnam 2015 Criminal Code for “producing, storing, and disseminating” documents opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. While state media asserts that he has participated in “very dangerous and serious conduct that negatively affects national social stability, public order of Ho Chi Minh City,” they can only point out one fact to support that accusation: that he established and organized a “civil society organization.”

Dung has written for numerous international media outlets and popular blogs. In 2014, he established and became the chairman of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, an organization of independent reporters who advocate for freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and democracy. According to CPJ, “Dung’s recent Voice of America reporting was sharply critical of a proposed European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, which he suggested Brussels should not ratify due to Vietnam’s poor human rights record.”

We join CPJ in calling for Pham Chi Dung’s immediate and unconditional release. Read more about him in our Database of Persecuted Activists in Vietnam.