I’m holidaying in Vietnam at the moment and have tried to catch up on some international news via The Guardian, much as I do back in Australia.
But here it is stuck firmly behind a paywall, whereas in Aus, while it tries to nudge me to subscribe or donate, still allows me free access.
What’s up with that?
What occurs to me is:
Internet censorship in Vietnam prevents access to websites critical of the Vietnamese government, expatriate political parties, and international human rights organizations, among others or anything the Vietnamese government doesn’t agree with. Online police reportedly monitor Internet cafes and cyber dissidents have been imprisoned. Vietnam regulates its citizens’ Internet access using both legal and technical means. The government’s efforts to regulate, monitor, and provide oversight regarding Internet use has been referred to as a “Bamboo Firewall”. However, citizens can usually view, comment and express their opinions civilly on the internet, as long as it does not evoke anti-government movement, political coup and disrupt the social stability of the country.
The OpenNet Initiative classified the level of filtering in Vietnam as pervasive in the political, as substantial in the Internet tools, and as selective in the social and conflict/security areas in 2011, while Reporters without Borders consider Vietnam an “internet enemy”.
While the government of Vietnam claims to safeguard the country against obscene or sexually explicit content through its blocking efforts, many of the filtered sites contain no such content, but rather politically or religiously critical materials that might undermine the Communist Party and the stability of its one-party rule. Amnesty International reported many instances of Internet activists being arrested for their online activities.
Internet censorship in Vietnam prevents access to websites critical of the Vietnamese government, expatriate political parties, and international human rights organizations, among others or anything the Vietnamese government does not agree with. Online police reportedly monitor Internet cafes and cyber dissidents have been imprisoned. Vietnam regulates its citizens' Internet access using both legal and technical means. The government's efforts to regulate, monitor, and provide oversight regard Th...
The Guardian has probably many articles critical of the Vietnam government.
Perhaps a bit ironic, since many on the Right, at least in Australia, refer to it jokingly [?] as ‘Pravda’.
its the most lefty of the mainstream press here, although that is not saying much given the dominance of the Murdoch / Fox press in the media landscape.
In fact, not six hours ago the Guardian put up a pretty critical article on the kangaroo-court trial of a Vietnamese-Australian bloke by the name of Chau Van Kham on charges of supposed terrorism. So … yup.