HANOI: Vietnam’s parliament adopted reforms to the media and state secrets laws on Wednesday which press freedom advocates say will make it harder for journalists to protect the identities of their sources and increase legal risks for reporting.
“We are appalled by the further restriction to the legal framework governing press freedom in Vietnam,” Aleksandra Bielakowska, from Reporters Without Borders, said on Wednesday.
The changes will make Vietnam “an almost impossible place for journalists to report freely,” said Bielakowska.
Reporters Without Borders ranks Vietnam 173rd of 180 countries in its world press freedom index.
Vietnam’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vietnam’s lawmakers adopted a revamped press law, to take effect in July, which will require journalists to reveal sources at the request of authorities investigating any crime, according to the amended text reviewed by Reuters.
Under the current press law, a journalist can only be compelled to disclose a source in probes of “serious crimes.”
The reformed press law will also allow the public security ministry and local police to order source disclosures, whereas at present only judges can do so.
The reform comes amid an escalation of restrictive measures in recent months in the Communist-run country, such as the withdrawal of passports from foreign media reporters, including a BBC Vietnamese journalist, the ban of a printed edition of the Economist, the temporary suspension of Telegram messaging app and an expanded role for the public security ministry.
While domestic media are under state control, foreign journalists face surveillance, trip-approval requirements and limited access to press events.
Bielakowska said at least 28 journalists are currently imprisoned in Vietnam “often in inhumane conditions, simply for doing their jobs.”
In a separate move, legislators also amended the state secrets law, expanding the categories of protected information.
The new law, reviewed by Reuters and set to take effect in March, designates as additional state secrets details of leaders’ overseas programs, state compensation and settlements of international investment disputes.
Disclosing state secrets is already punishable by fines and prison terms.
“This amendment is granting authorities with yet another tool of repression against an already shattered media landscape,” Bielakowska said.
Vietnam set to make it harder for media to protect sources, to expand state secrets
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Vietnam set to make it harder for media to protect sources, to expand state secrets
- Under the current press law, a journalist can only be compelled to disclose a source in probes of “serious crimes”
Sri Lanka hospital releases 22 rescued Iranian sailors
- Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka discharged from hospital 22 Iranian sailors who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said Sunday.
The sailors were treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.
“Another 10 are still undergoing treatment,” a medical officer at the hospital told AFP.
He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.
Those discharged from hospital overnight had been taken to a beach resort in the same district.
Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law, and the government had contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance.
The island is also providing safe haven for another 219 Iranian sailors from a second ship, the IRIS Bushehr, that was allowed to berth a day after the Dena was sunk.
Sailors from the Bushehr have been moved to a Sri Lanka Navy camp at Welisara, just north of the capital Colombo, and their ship taken over by Sri Lanka’s navy.
Sri Lanka announced it was taking the Bushehr to the north-eastern port of Trincomalee, but an engine failure and other technical and administrative issues had delayed the movement, a navy spokesman said.
Sri Lanka has denied claims that it was under pressure from Washington not to allow the Iranians to return home, and said Colombo will be guided solely by international law and its own domestic legislation.
A US State Department spokesperson said the disposition of the Bushehr crew and Iranian sailors rescued at sea was up to Sri Lanka.
“The United States, of course, respects and recognizes Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in the handling of this situation,” the spokesperson told AFP in Washington.
India, meanwhile, said Saturday that it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on “humane” grounds after it too reported engine problems.
The three ships were part of a multi-national fleet review held by India before the war in the Middle East started last week.
“I think it was the humane thing to do, and I think we were guided by that principle,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday.
The Lavan docked in the south-west Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.
“A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility,” Jaishankar said.
