The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) expresses deep concern over the Vietnamese authorities' arrest on 13 June 2009 of Le Cong Dinh, an established lawyer, writer, and defender of free expression and human rights.
The charges brought against Mr. Dinh, including allegations that he was distributing "anti-state propaganda" could carry the penalty of up to 20 years' imprisonment. Given his reputation and experience as a defender of other writers and advocates of human rights and democracy in Vietnam, Mr. Dinh's arrest is a simultaneous attack on two sectors vital to democratic reform in Vietnam or any society. It sends a chilling message not only to other writers and citizens who peacefully advocate for change, but also to those in the legal community who would defend the Vietnamese people's right to free expression.
SEAPA, representing media and journalist organizations throughout Southeast Asia, thus calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Le Cong Dinh. We urge the Vietnamese government to assure and ensure transparency and fairness in the consideration of the charges brought against Mr. Dinh, by giving him access to his lawyers, and allowing independent media access to any and all future proceedings. We would also ask that the international legal community to which Mr. Dinh belongs, and within which he is a respected and recognized champion of democracy and human rights, be allowed to monitor all proceedings against Mr. Dinh, so as to hopefully attest to the transparency and fairness he and the Vietnamese people deserve.
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ABOUT SEAPA
SEAPA is a coalition of journalist and press freedom advocacy groups from around Southeast Asia. Its founding members are the Alliance of Independent Journalists (Indonesia), the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (Philippines), the Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information, ISAI (Indonesia), the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), and the Thai Journalists Association. SEAPA also has as non-member partners: the Center for Independent Journalism (Malaysia), Mizzima.com (exiled, Burma), the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists, and the Timor Lorosae Journalists Association. SEAPA is the only regional organization with the specific mandate of promoting and protecting press freedom in Southeast Asia.
