Do Cong Duong is a blogger and citizen journalist, frequently commenting on corruption and land grabs occurring in his community. He hosted “Tieng Dan TV”, a Facebook live video discussion discussing contemporary social issues. Do Cong Duong was sentenced to four years prison in September 2018 for “disturbing public disorder” before being sentenced to a further five years in prison in October 2018 for “abusing democratic freedoms”.

More information:

• https://cpj.org/2018/09/vietnam-jails-journalist-for-four-years-over-cover.php
• https://rsf.org/en/news/vietnam-second-trial-brings-bloggers-total-prison-sentence-nine-years

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Note on Penal Code provisions:

A revised and expanded penal code took effect January 1, 2018 (known as the “Amended 2015 Penal Code”). While the previous provisions criminalizing political expression remained unchanged, they were renumbered. For instance, Article 79 (attempting to overthrow the government), Article 88 (anti-state propaganda), and Article 258 (abusing democratic rights) were renumbered as Article 109, Article 117, and Article 331, respectively.

For consistency with past media coverage, our database records the Article(s) that the prisoner was charged with (i.e., based on the version of the penal code applicable at the time of the sentencing).

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