History of Censorship in Vietnam
The history of censorship in Vietnam is marked by a legacy of control that dates back to French colonial rule in the late 19th century, when the colonial administration suppressed Vietnamese voices that criticized their authority. Following Vietnam's independence, both the communist regime in the north and the authoritarian government in the south continued these practices, enforcing strict media controls to maintain power and suppress dissent. In the South, the government adopted prepublication censorship and targeted publications that opposed its policies, leading to a press landscape characterized by heavy restrictions and significant gaps in free expression. The North utilized the media as a propaganda tool, controlling all information dissemination and often purging dissenting writers and intellectuals.
After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, these censorship practices intensified, with the new government working to suppress any remnants of the previous regime's influence. Even as the country initiated economic reforms in 1986, the Communist Party retained strict political control, restricting journalistic freedoms and monitoring the Internet to prevent access to uncensored information. The Vietnamese government has been known to imprison media activists and bloggers, further showcasing the ongoing challenges to freedom of expression. Recent regulations, such as Decree 72, highlight attempts to limit online discourse, revealing a persistent fear of information that questions state authority. Ultimately, Vietnam's approach to censorship reflects a deep-seated struggle between state control and the push for free expression, a dynamic that continues to evolve in contemporary society.
History of Censorship in Vietnam
Description: Independent Southeast Asian nation reunified in 1975
Significance: From the French colonial period to the war between the north and south that led to unification and communist rule, censorship has been used by every regime—colonial, republican, and communist—as a tool to enforce government control
The Vietnam War has been called the first uncensored war in American history. From the time that US forces were dispatched to the Southeast Asian country in the early 1960s to the fall of Saigon in 1975, combat correspondents were given free reign to follow troops, enter hostile areas, and report from the battlefield. While correspondents working for US media could broadcast and write about the political and military situation, and even question the legitimacy of the war, Vietnamese media on the two opposing sides, the north and the south, faced severe restrictions. The republican Saigon government and the communist government in Hanoi controlled the press to discourage dissent and criticism, and to sway public opinion to their respective sides. It is an irony that US correspondents had more freedom in a foreign land than the nationals covering a bitter war that tore apart their homeland. Censorship of the Vietnamese media can be traced to the 1880s when the French introduced newspapers and magazines to Vietnam.
French Colonialism
The French solidified their control of Vietnam in the latter half of the nineteenth century. They published newspapers in the 1880s for colonials and their families to keep them abreast of French affairs and news within Vietnam. The idea caught on among Vietnamese nationals and within the next decade Vietnamese began publishing their own periodicals and newspapers, which often criticized French rule. The French had no tolerance of any Vietnamese questioning their authority or right to rule. Such criticism triggered censorship by a colonial administration that dismissed the notion of freedom of the press, although the French considered colonialism as a mission civilisatrice to enlighten backward nations about liberty. The French wanted Vietnamese newspapers and periodicals to popularize French culture and to promote harmonious colonial life. What the French permitted and sought were collaborationist newspapers that disseminated official statements and communiqués from the French authorities and Vietnamese imperial government ciphers. This set the stage for an ideological rather than an objective press, a press that served as an organ of government, rather than a voice of the people. The repression extended to literature in times of civil distress.
During World War II when Japanese forces attacked and occupied Vietnam, the French and Japanese governments clamped down on all periodicals and books published in Vietnamese. When the French left Vietnam after their historic defeat at Dienbienphu on May 7, 1954, the two governments that were formed in the aftermath of French colonialism, the authoritarian republic in the south and the communist regime in the north, continued the French precedent of controlling the media and repressing free expression. Censorship became part of the legacy of French rule.
Republic of South Vietnam
The newly formed republic in 1954 wasted no time in shackling the press. The government adopted an old French decree that provided for prepublication review and censorship of the press. Government officials screened newspapers and as an additional threat controlled the distribution of newsprint. In 1957 the government of Ngo Dinh Diem issued orders for newspapers to deliver to the Ministry of Information two copies of each newspaper before publication. Furthermore, mobs attacked offices of newspapers known to be critical of the government. Diem extended his hard-line rule to ban all dancing, including folk dancing, and, in 1963, outlawed sentimental songs as detrimental to the war effort. After Diem was assassinated in 1963, subsequent governments continued to suppress the free exchange of ideas. Most of the problems were with newspapers because the government controlled the airwaves, including the one Vietnamese television network. Pro-Buddhist newspapers were confiscated in 1964, and a year later the government of Nguyen Cao Ky attempted to close all Vietnamese-language newspapers for a month. It became common to see large blank spaces on the pages of many Vietnamese-language newspapers because the censors removed the stories. But such tactics backfired because of the presence of a large, foreign press corps. Vietnamese reporters, often working for US news agencies, tipped off American reporters about stories Vietnamese could never publish. Once the stories were broken by the world press, and broadcast on Voice of America and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) radio, the government had a difficult time withholding the information.
Democratic Republic of North Vietnam
The Vietnamese Communist Party has historically used the press as a propaganda tool and an organ in the fight to reunite the country. Communist ideology viewed the press as an instrument to serve the party. The party thus exercised tight control over all forms of media, including newspapers, film, and radio broadcasts. Only information approved by party censors is disseminated to the people; Vietnamese must listen to BBC or Voice of America broadcasting to gain other perspectives about the world. The North Vietnamese also reined in writers and intellectuals, purging newspapers of their ranks and prohibiting their works from being published. Such policies continued after the unification of Vietnam in 1975. Following the defeat of South Vietnam, military officers, government officials, and members of the intelligentsia, including actors, artists, journalists, writers, poets, publishers, and producers were forced to labor in reeducation camps for a period ranging from three months to more than fifteen years. Communist Party cadres held indoctrination sessions in the camps to prepare members of the old society for life in the socialist republic. The north maintained strict control over the south, which had been conditioned by French colonialism and twenty years of authoritarian rule to government control of the press and freedom of expression. Professor Jacqueline Debarats of the Australian National University reported that the first significant act of repression after the fall of Saigon was the burning of four million works in the Khai Tri publishing house. Religious institutions also came under attack. Buddhist, Catholic, and Protestant leaders have been arrested, sent to reeducation camps, or confined to house arrest. Seminaries have been closed and temples, pagodas, and other places of worship destroyed. Although Vietnam initiated free-market reforms in 1986, the Communist Party retains tight control over political affairs and has yet to liberalize restrictions on the press. The US-based Freedom Forum Foundation of the Gannett Newspaper chain has been hampered by the government in its efforts to provide professional training for Vietnamese journalists. Programs to be led by Western journalists have been canceled, and Vietnamese journalists have been unable to obtain visas to study in the United States.
Vietnam, which wants so much to modernize, even fears the Internet. Government officials worry that if they allow citizens access to the World Wide Web, they will be exposed to the same type of uncensored information from Western correspondents that they received during the war. While the government has not gone so far as to prohibit use of the Internet, it has instituted regulations regarding the sharing of information online and has been known as a country that has imprisoned a large number of media activists, including bloggers. In 2013, the Vietnamese government implemented Decree 72, which dictated that social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter could only be used to post personal information, as part of the effort to limit any content that harms national security or opposes the state in any way. That same year, the group Reporters without Borders indicated that thirty-five bloggers and other Internet activists were currently imprisoned in the country, with a mass sentencing involving five bloggers reported in January alone. Groups such as the Committee to Protect Journalists were happy to see imprisoned blogger Ta Phong Tan released in 2015 after serving three years of a ten-year sentence for allegedly spreading propaganda against the government, but were displeased when she was conditionally forced into exile.
Bibliography
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