Vietnamese Journalist Gets 2 ½ Years in Prison for Facebook Posts

A court in Vietnam sentenced one of the country’s most influential journalists to two and a half years in prison Thursday for “abusing democratic freedoms” with about a dozen posts on Facebook that criticized or questioned the government.

The journalist, Truong Huy San — known to many by his pen name, Huy Duc — was arrested in Hanoi, the capital, in June.

He was convicted under the criminal code for 13 articles he posted on his personal Facebook page between 2015 and 2024 that, according to state-run media, “negatively impacted state interests, as well as the legal rights of organizations and individuals.”

Mr. San’s family was not allowed into the courtroom.

Mr. San’s case has been closely watched by international human rights groups and journalists, in part to better understand the direction of a rising regional power and one-party state that has often signaled it wants to be seen as more open to the world and innovation — while frequently cracking down on speech and civil society organizations.

At least one of the posts from Mr. San that led to the charges involved arguments against heavy-handed policing. A screenshot of a deleted post from Mr. San last year that was preserved by the 88 Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that focuses on human rights issues in Vietnam, declared: “A COUNTRY CANNOT DEVELOP BASED ON FEAR.”

By that point, his Facebook page had around 370,000 followers.

Shawn Crispin, the senior Southeast Asia representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Mr. San “was convicted and sentenced for gathering and publishing independent news, which Vietnam treats as a criminal offense.”