Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang

Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang is a human rights defender fighting for religious, land, and environmental rights, as well as press freedom, in Vietnam. 

Trang has worked for the Vietnamese Redemptorists’ News (Truyền Thông Chúa Cứu Thế Việt Nam) since 2011. As a reporter, Trang has advocated for vulnerable religious communities that practice Unified Vietnamese Buddhism, Caodaism, Hoa Hao Buddhism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. She has also accompanied communities that suffered from land disputes with the government, such as Thu Thiem, Loc Hung vegetable garden, Duong Noi, Dong Tam, Thien An Monastery, etc. Moreover, Trang has worked to support victims of Formosa environmental disaster and families of political prisoners. She has reported on allegations of religious rights vand human rights violations, land rights disputes, environmental issues, and the rights of veterans of the the Republic of Vietnam. 

Because of her peaceful activism, Trang has been put under strict surveillance and harassed for years. She has been attacked, both physically and mentally, and has suffered severe injuries in police stations. 

For example, on October 30, 2011, Trang was arbitrarily detained when she was reporting on the trial of musicians Viet Khang and Tran Vu Anh Binh. She was then forced to go to the police station of Cau Kho Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. There, she was verbally berated, badly beaten, threatened, and humiliated by female police officers who dragged her into a restroom, stripped her naked, and searched her body.

In 2014, Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang was nominated by Father Anton Le Ngoc Thanh of the Vietnamese Redemptorists to join the May 2014 World Press Freedom Day. Trang planned to attend the hearing on press freedom in Vietnam at the US House of Representatives. However, on April 13, she was banned from leaving Vietnam even though she had completed the exit procedures for a flight to the U.S. She was insulted and beaten until she fainted by the security guards at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. Then, airport police confiscated her passport without presenting any formal paperwork. She later filed a complaint and sued Mr. Vu Xuan Ai, a security officer at Tan Son Nhat Airport, for banning her from leaving the country and confiscating her passport. However, her case has still not been resolved by the authorities. 

Resources

Interview and documents provided by Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang in October 2024. 

Mỹ quan ngại việc hai nhạc sỹ bị xử tù, BBC News Tiếng Việt, October 30, 2012. Archived version. 

Anna Huyền Trang tường thuật những việc phi pháp của an ninh sân bay Tân Sơn Nhất, Dân Làm Báo, April 15, 2014. Archived version. 

Các nhà hoạt động VN tới Mỹ vận động cho tự do báo chí, VOA Tiếng Việt, April 18, 2014. Archived version. 

Điều trần về tự do báo chí ở Việt Nam tại Hạ viện Hoa Kỳ, RFA Tiếng Việt, April 29, 2014. Archived version. 

Cô gái trẻ dấn thân vào sứ mạng truyền thông vì người nghèo, VOA Tiếng Việt, January 31, 2015. Archived version.