15 September 2009

Vietnam: Gossip, Yes; Democracy, Well....

AP reports Vietnam blogger released by Communist government. 

Money quote One: “Earlier this year, the government tightened its rules for bloggers, requiring that they must restrict their writings to personal matters.” 

Money quote Two: “[P]olice told him they had evidence that he had violated Article 258 of Vietnam's penal code, which prohibits ‘abusing freedom and democracy to infringe on the interests of the state.’ " 

In Vietnam “freedom and democracy” mean that bloggers are allowed to gossip, but not to participate in their country’s “democracy.” Gee, a couple hundred thousand boat people couldn’t have been wrong, could they?

 

 

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