After 35 years of renewal cause, Vietnam has made remarkable progress in protecting and promoting human rights and ensuring democratic rights for the people. However, not acknowledging our achievements, hostile forces tried to oppose with distorting and ridiculous statements about a Vietnam without democracy, human rights, freedom of speech and democracy. This issue need to be refuted.

Ridiculous distortions about democracy and human rights in Vietnam

Distorted and ridiculous view that politicise all issues is a common practice of hostile forces on democracy and human rights situations in Vietnam. They compulsively put the moral element into legal terminology, typically the phrase: "prisoner of conscience", reflecting the fallacious and immoral way of thinking because, in the judicial system of Vietnam and other countries around the world, the term "prisoner of conscience" does not exist. In fact, the so-called "prisoner of conscience" is just a trick to support, protect and incite the objects who oppose and distort policies, guidelines and policies of our Party and State. Public and strict trials of opponents are necessary actions of a sovereign state in order to prevent illegal acts that are dangerous to society.  At the court, these subjects openly accepted their crimes and verdict. However, a number of foreign organisations with bad will towards Vietnam have issued statements criticising Vietnam Courts and expressing their support and encouragement for those who have been tried and publicly judged on their crime. This is such a wrong legal approach that blatantly misrepresents the human rights situation in Vietnam.

They also argued that Vietnam considers human rights with too broad a connotation, in favour of social norms, and disregards the specific natural rights of individuals. They deliberately ignore an obvious fact that: ensuring the specific natural rights of individuals must be placed in relation to the interests of society within the framework of the law. Not only in Vietnam, most countries in the world do not approach and practice general and abstract universal human rights, but in the natural relationship between specific individual rights and rights of social groups directly related to that individual. Just basing on some unverified information to describe the situation of democracy and human rights would be a ridiculous view. This is most evident in the world reports from 2013 of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Hostile forces try to promote Western human rights in the name of universal human rights. They consider Western culture as the center, consider Western human rights as dominant around the world and above national sovereignty. This approach is dominated by the operating budget of civil individuals and organisations under the market mechanism, which seriously violates the international conventions and principles on the prohibition of interference in the internal affairs of other countries. As a result, country reports of HRW are often opposed and criticised by many countries.

Each country, territory and culture, due to differences in historical circumstances, traditional values, development levels, political regimes, etc., should have a different approach to universal human rights. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the late Prime Minister of Singapore, once stated: nowhere in the world are these rights allowed to be exercised without limitations, because blind application of these ideas can lead towards the destruction of an organised society. Former US Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson said that it is impossible to assess a country's human rights situation on the standard of 100% satisfaction. The United States, like any other country, can’t meet that standard. The 100% human rights satisfaction score can’t be met by any country.

Over the years, ensuring human rights in Vietnam has been praised by many international leaders, politicians, observers and tourists. David Hutt, an ASEAN-specialised journalist, told BBC News that the Communist Party of Vietnam acted responsibly and put the people first. In addition, Vietnam's success in turning risks into chances in dual goals of Covid-19 prevention and control and socio-economic development has received many good reviews from politicians, experts and international media. This is a living proof of the Party and State's respect, protection and promotion of human rights.

Vietnam suppresses freedom of speech and social networks -  A distorted and ridiculous claim

Hostile, reactionary, and politically opposed forces try to claim that Vietnam prevents the freedom of speech and expression, and counters the freedom of the press online. They criticised the government for arbitrarily arresting and prosecuting the dissidents; censoring and closing websites; making criminal laws; tightening and restricting the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of movement and freedom of religion, etc. They misunderstand about the right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and hold that these rights are absolute as in the way they provoke, boycott and retaliate fiercely, including smearing and opposing the social regime, etc. Since then, they promote the establishment of a number of organisations in the name of literature and press to oppose the regime and our State. Giving a misleading ranking of press freedom in Vietnam, they put pressure for the release of those arrested for violating Vietnamese law, which they call the arrest and imprisonment of "independent journalists", "bloggers", etc. These are distorting and ridiculous claims because respecting, protecting and promoting human rights, including the right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press, are a consistent view of the Party and State with the view to upholding the role of the press as a forum for the people, a bridge between the Party, the State and the people, for the people to present their thoughts, feelings and aspirations, thereby, the press performs the function of social criticism, proposes enthusiastic opinions to the Party and State, and guides public opinion in the process of building the Party's guidelines, policies, and laws of the State, contributing to promoting economic, cultural and social development, ensuring national defense, security, social order and safety. Implementing that view, the State of Vietnam pays special attention to building and perfecting the legal system to ensure freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of information. The right to freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the right to access information have been stipulated by the Constitution (2013), the Press Law (2016) and the Law on Access to Information (2016) stipulating that the State has the responsibility to create favourable conditions for citizens to exercise their rights to freedom of the press and freedom of speech; ensure that all citizens are equal and not discriminated in exercising the right to access information; ensure the provision of accurate, complete, timely, transparent and convenient information for citizens. In particular, the press is not censored before printing, transmission and broadcasting.

Currently, Vietnam has over 41,000 employees working in 779 press agencies (including: 142 newspapers, 612 magazines, 25 independent electronic press agencies), 72 radio and television stations with a total of 87 radio channels and 193 television channels. As of June 2021, the number of internet users mounted up to 70 million, an increase of 0.8% in the period 2020 - 2021 (accounting for more than 70% of the population); the number of people using social networks is nearly 76 million people, an increase of nearly 10 million people within one year (equivalent to 73.7% of the population). Vietnam ranks 12^th in the number of internet users worldwide and sixth in Asia.

On the contrary, the right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of information is not an absolute right but a limited one. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of information are considered basic principles for a democracy, even as "oxygen" in a democratic and developed society, but not recognised as an absolute right by the international community. International documents on human rights, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 (Article 29), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 (Article 19) all affirm: The exercise of the right to freedom of expression comes with special obligations and responsibilities, may be subject to certain limitations set forth in law, and is necessary to respect the rights or reputations of others; protect national security or public order, the health or morals of society. The laws of most countries in the world limit this right, such as: in the US, the Penal Code (Article 2,385, Chapter 115) provides for restrictions on the right to freedom of expression; in Germany, the Cybersecurity Law 2015 (amended in 2018), stipulates that social networking services can be fined up to 50 million euros if there is a case of users insulting, causing hatred, or spreading fake news, etc.

In order to approach international standards on human rights, Vietnam has developed and perfected the legal framework to guarantee the right to freedom of expression, the principle that the press and journalists operate within the legal framework and protected by law; strictly prohibit all acts of abusing press freedom and freedom of expression in the press to infringe upon the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organisations and citizens. All acts of violating the law shall be handled by competent state agencies according to the order and procedures of law, ensuring publicity and transparency. At the same time, it monitors, surveys, evaluates and promptly adjusts, supplements and perfects the legal system and policies, in accordance with the rules governing cultural behaviour in social community activities, especially in cyberspace. The above fact has exposed the one-sidedness and distortion of freedom of speech in Vietnam.

Assoc Prof TUONG DUY KIEN, PhD., Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics