July 5th, 2009
In their June 21st, 22nd, and 23rd publications, the People’s Public Security Online Newspaper (CAND Online) published a photograph of a conference in Denmark hosted by Mr. Nguyen Sy Binh, a member of the People’s Action Party. The publication marked lawyer Le Cong Dinh as an attendee.
A few days later, an engineer named Huynh Quoc Huy, from the Committee to Support the Freedom and Democracy Movements in Vietnam, based in Aarhus, Denmark, insisted that the meeting had no relevance to either Mr Nguyen Sy Binh or lawyer Le Cong Dinh since neither were even invited.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Police released additional articles titled “Nguyen Sy Binh and the People’s Action Party” and “Opportunists push for change in the Government” on June 21st, 22nd, and 23rd.
Their publications attracted strong public interests due to the re-appearance of the same photograph in each of the 3 articles with the same person marked and implicated to be lawyer Le Cong Dinh. The caption, “Le Cong Dinh at the Freedom and Democracy for Vietnam Conference in Denmark organized by Nguyen Sy Binh,” accompanied the photograph.
According to Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket, who attended the conference and is shown in the aforementioned photograph, these articles were completely fabricated.
“Surely the person who was picked out by the People’s Public Security newspaper in that photograph was not lawyer Le Cong Dinh. The conference was organized by the Committee to Support the Freedom and Democracy Movements in Vietnam of Aarhus, Denmark and not by Nguyen Sy Binh. The lead organizer of that conference was Huynh Quoc Huy, chairman of the Committee.”
Then why did official State media, under the order of the Ministry of Police, release such baseless articles? And is it a conventional practice to do so?
Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket said:
“I think when the Government cannot find any evidence against the pro-democracy activists they want to imprison, for example lawyer Le Cong Dinh, the Vietnamese Communists will desperately try to fabricate the evidence. In order to justify their accusations against lawyer Le Cong Dinh, CAND Online captioned him as being present at the event. I know the public will deem this as very blatant and ridiculous behavior. It seems that the Communists think the world is as outdated as they are. People will always check for the truthfulness behind the information.”
When searching for “The Committee to Support the Freedom and Democracy Movements in Vietnam” on the Internet, we found numerous links to websites, including a news blurb from VNN News (http://www.vnn-news.com/spip.php?breve8508). In the March 23, 2007 article about a Committee event, the same photograph provided by CAND Online was discovered. The original caption for the photograph is titled, “The Committee to Support the Freedom and Democracy Movements in Vietnam in Aarhus, Denmark, with Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket, at the welcoming ceremony on March 18, 2007.” This was obviously changed to “Le Cong Dinh at the Freedom and Democracy for Vietnam Conference in Denmark organized by Nguyen Sy Binh” by CAND Online.
Mr Huynh Quoc Huy, chairman of the Committee to Support the Freedom and Democracy Movements in Vietnam, spoke out on July 1st regarding these articles. He said:
“We, The Committee to Support the Freedom and Democracy Movements in Vietnam in Denmark, would like to globally clarify that we are the original owners of the photograph, as well as the host of the conference. This conference had no relevance to either Mr Nguyen Sy Binh or Mr Le Cong Dinh. Additionally, they did not attend the conference. The person who was highlighted and picked out from the photograph was a migrant living in Denmark, and definitely not Mr Le Cong Dinh.”
“We would like to hear from the world as well as Vietnamese people about this miscarriage of justice at the hands of the Vietnamese Communist leaders.”
Through an interview with the Radio Free Asia, Mr Huynh Quoc Huy, once again, emphasized:
“That was really a welcoming ceremony that took place in Aarhus, Denmark for the Committee to Support the Freedom and Democracy Movements in Vietnam, held on March 18, 2007. Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket was present during his work-related travel to Europe. It had nothing to do with Mr Nguyen Sy Binh or Mr Le Cong Dinh. In the photograph provided by CAND Online, one person was picked out and marked to be Mr Le Cong Dinh, which is false. That person was a Vietnamese migrant living in Denmark. We’ve publicly voice our concerns regarding the Vietnamese Ministry of Police’s baseless accusations.”
A number of overseas Vietnamese are shocked upon learning of this fabricated evidence. According to Mr Nguyen Chinh Ket, this kind of unethical behavior takes place regularly.
“I think the fact that Vietnamese media often uses fabricated evidence is just their modus operandi when dealing with pro-democracy activists and freedom advocates. I have even seen a number of baseless articles written about me.
Comments from a member of an online forum called X-café, considered as a representative for the voice of people within the country:
“What a despicable trick, a total fabrication! In this modern day when the world is watching Vietnam, the Government naively treats its people like fools. It seems our party has become stuck in its backward ways. How disappointing! No one will believe future publications from such an ‘official’ online newspaper.”
Ha Giang – Radio Free Asia