Agreement with Microsoft to promote computer technology in Vietnam
New York (AsiaNews/agencies) An agreement to promote computer technology in Vietnam has been reached between the Hanoi prime minister, Phan Van Khai, and Microsoft owner Bill Gates. The agreement, signed at the Microsoft headquarters in Seattle in the course of the Vietnamese leader's first US visit, provides for teacher training and backing for the spread of computer technology in Vietnam.
At the moment, internet is strictly controlled by the communist authorities. In August last year, the creation of a special police corps was announced to "guarantee internet security" in Vietnam. The new police unit was set up to investigate internet crimes and to stem the distribution of prohibited information. Democratic ideas are considered as such and several people have been sentenced for talking about their democratic convictions.
Around five million out of a population of 81 million Vietnamese use the internet regularly. Since the service is expensive, Vietnamese usually go online in internet cafes, where owners are obliged to record all users' personal details, as well as visits to sites judged inappropriate, and to report everything to the authorities. Dissidents often use the internet to circulate information about conditions of human rights and freedoms in the country. According to the annual report of Réporter sans frontières, in 2003, cyber-dissidents were those hardest-hit by repressive government measures.
At the end of July 2004, for example, Nguyen Dan Que, one of Vietnam's best-known democracy activists, was condemned to two and a half years in prison for "abuse of democratic freedoms against the government". He had sent a document by internet to a relative in the United States, in which he upheld the necessity of political reform and human rights guarantees.
Article 69 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of the press, but stipulates penalties for diffusion of state secrets or information which threatens national security.
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20/06/2005
