His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung
Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam,
Head Office 16 Lê Hồng Phong Str.,
Ba Đình District,
Hà Nội, Việt Nam.
Fax: 080.48924;
Email: toasoanwebcp@chinhphu.vn
18 April 2014
Your Excellency,
We are writing as part of the global online campaign ’30 Days for Freedom’ to call for the release of Tạ Phong Tần, imprisoned since September 2011, and all other journalists and bloggers currently in jail in Vietnam.
Widely recognised as one of Vietnam's first outspoken bloggers, Tần was arrested on 5 September 2011 on anti-state propaganda charges for blog posts about government corruption. She was sentenced on 4 October 2012 to a decade in prison.
Tạ Phong Tần is the author of over 700 articles published on her blog ‘Justice & Truth’. She has written primarily about social issues, from the mistreatment of children and poor people to high-level corruption and police abuse – the latter to which she offered personal testament as a former police officer.
Your Excellency, we urge you to release Tạ Phong Tần, and all other jailed journalists and bloggers currently behind bars in Viet Nam. We call on you to embrace unfettered freedom of expression as a positive force in Vietnamese society, and as a cornerstone around which to continue building a strong state that respects international standards for human rights.
Sincerely,
#FreethePress
The 30 Days for Freedom campaign
Organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum, the ‘30 Days for Freedom’ campaign aims to highlight the plight of imprisoned journalists worldwide in the 30 days leading up to 3 May, World Press Freedom Day.
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