I’ve been watching the progressive erosion of civil liberties in Vietnam with a watchful eye for some time now. The country first appeared on my radar due to its particularly aggressive measures against the citizenry’s gold buying. As the progression usually goes, first a country will lash out against its own people for buying protection against the leadership’s mismanagement of the economy by blaming gold. Once that fails, a country will usually then start cracking down on civil liberties. Shortly after that we usually see the cracking of heads. It appears Vietnam has taken a frightening and dangerous step forward in the progression with Decree 72. From the BBC:
A controversial law banning Vietnamese online users from discussing current affairs has come into effect.
The decree, known as Decree 72, says blogs and social websites should not be used to share news articles, but only personal information.
Dozens of activists, including bloggers, have been convicted for anti-state activity in the country this year.
The new law specifies that social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook should only be used “to provide and exchange personal information”.
It also prohibits the online publication of material that “opposes” the Vietnamese government or “harms national security.”
Last month the US embassy in Hanoi said it was “deeply concerned by the decree’s provisions”, arguing that “fundamental freedoms apply online just as they do offline”.
Oh please. The rogue leadership in the USA is one financial crisis away from trying to do the exact same thing.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
Follow me on Twitter!
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G
Follow me on Twitter.
In many ways, our regime has already started. Been on FB lately? Anyone expressing a conservative opinion is usually shut down post haste…
yes – we see here in the USA the ongoing push to homogenize our “news” and force reader comments to use farcebook to publish – as well as the entire large city website design look/content – for example, LATimes, DenverPost, Dallas News (formerly Morning News), Miami Herald, just to name a few, have all recently redesigned their sites which now have a common look and feel to them… not to mention the prepackaged content and formula… you will see the same “entertainment” news globally, whether it be african, far east, middle east, you name it – probably behind the scenes the mega merger media consolidation that we’ve seen here in the USA since the 1996 FCC rule changes on ownership is going on globally. I just saw a Soweto South African news website and there too, at the top of the home page, is looky here who is the new 50 Shades of Grey actors for the new movie…plus a nice pic of the new fighter jets their gov has bought …also big story of R. Kelly’s success…
We are still so fortunate here to still have such a vibrant web base for keeping our awareness sharp – but for how long? Thanks for the Liberty Blitzkrieg, and ZeroHedge – we’ve got to keep talking to friends and family to not be complacent and apathetic – / BREAKING: just looked @ Denverpost poll of whether congress should approve Obama’s desire to drop Bombs of Mass Destruction on the people of Syria and 77% say NO. Othernews, Dennis Rodman is back in North Korea … and Colorado School of Mines is building a $21 Million dollar football stadium – LOVE !
When any gov. talks about “national security” they really are talking about protecting their own personal security. In Asia the gov. there don’t need to hide their criminal, completely unconscious and inhumane behavior towards others. It’s right out there in the open and nothing intrinsically different than Pol Pot’s death machine if anyone goes against them. That’s how much they want control, power and money. Especially money. They are more materialistic and money hungry than Americans ever could be on a good day if you can believe that.