Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) in a letter to Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, Prime Minister of Vietnam, expressed concern over the arrest of two journalists, Chu Manh Son and Truong Minh Tam.
PPF Secretary General Owais Aslam Ali in his letter urged the government of Vietnam to immediately release journalist Truong Minh Tam, and to appreciate and protect independent journalists who cover news of national interest.
According to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Chu Manh Son, a reporter with the local Catholic news service Good News for the Poor, and Truong Minh Tam, a citizen journalist with the Vietnam Path Movement civil-society group, were arrested by the police on May 1, while they were reporting on an ecological disaster that has seen tons of fish wash up on the shores of the country’s central coastal region.
Tam and Son travelled to different affected areas to interview local people, produce TV reports and post them on anti-state websites. Just hours before his arrest, Tam posted a report from an affected area in Ha Thinh province. While Son was arrested as he filmed protests against a Taiwanese steel factory suspected of discharging toxic pollution into the ocean.
Tam and Son have been targeted by the authorities for their activism. Tam is still jailed, whereas Son was released on May 3.
