Home 5 News 5 IPA condemns sentence given to Vietnamese publisher

IPA condemns sentence given to Vietnamese publisher

by | Dec 15, 2021 | News

The International Publishers Association (IPA) has condemned the nine-year sentence given to Vietnamese author and publisher Pham Doan Trang for disseminating anti-state propaganda.

José Borghino, IPA Secretary General, said: “All publicly available information about this case, the charges and the process make it impossible to see this as anything but a show trial. The International Publishers Association commends Pham Doan Trang for her bravery in the face of this persecution which can only be intended to intimidate others into silence.”

In a powerful statement given to her family before her trial, Trang said: ‘In a democratic society, if a citizen writes something or responds to interview questions from foreign journalists regarding matters the government doesn’t want to hear, what would be the civilized response? The most civilized response would be for the government to do nothing because a civilized person knows how to respect the opinions and interests of others.

‘In a less fortunate situation, if a government has authoritarian tendencies and finds what the citizen says unacceptable, then it could simply write books or articles to rebut that citizen, or even boldly reach out to the foreign press to arrange an interview in which a government representative expresses his/her viewpoint or responds to the citizen in-kind. But the Socialist Republic of Vietnam does none of this. Instead, it chooses to respond in a more vile, foolish, and heinous manner, imprisoning its citizens simply because they write works or respond to interviews with foreign journalists.’

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders have all spoken out about her detention.  Trang received  the 2020 IPA Prix Voltaire on behalf of Liberal Publishing House.  Not for the first time, the IPA’s stance puts some of its members in a difficult position.  The governments of China and Saudi Arabia have a similarly harsh and undemocratic response to dissent as that of Vietnam.  Their respective trade bodies who are full members of the IPA may distance themselves from the organisation’s overall stance on this particular issue.

Recent News

15May
Ishiguro Joins AI Copyright Appeal

Ishiguro Joins AI Copyright Appeal

  Authors including the Nobel Prize-winner Kasho Ishiguro and publishers including Joanna Prior, CEO of Pan Macmillan have signed an open letter urging UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to enforce copyright law and not let the giant tech companies ‘steal’ authors’ work to train AI models.   The letter reads: “We will lose an immense […]

15May
Qatar National Library: Identity and Journey from a Female Perspective

Qatar National Library: Identity and Journey from a Female Perspective

Qatar National Library organised a symposium exploring the often-overlooked contributions of women to the genre of travel literature. Bringing together leading researchers and academics, the event examined how female travellers from the 19th and early 20th centuries used travel—and the literature it inspired—as a means of personal empowerment, self-discovery and the reimagining of prevailing social […]

15May
British Book Award Goes to Atwood

British Book Award Goes to Atwood

Canadian author Margaret Atwood has been awarded the 2025 British Book Award for Freedom to Publish, recognizing her unwavering commitment to free expression and outspoken stance against censorship. Atwood, best known for her seminal novel The Handmaid’s Tale, accepted the honor via a recorded video message.   In her speech, the 85-year-old author expressed deep […]

Related Posts

Qatar National Library: Identity and Journey from a Female Perspective

Qatar National Library: Identity and Journey from a Female Perspective

Qatar National Library organised a symposium exploring the often-overlooked contributions of women to the genre of travel literature. Bringing together leading researchers and academics, the event examined how female travellers from the 19th and early 20th centuries...

British Book Award Goes to Atwood

British Book Award Goes to Atwood

Canadian author Margaret Atwood has been awarded the 2025 British Book Award for Freedom to Publish, recognizing her unwavering commitment to free expression and outspoken stance against censorship. Atwood, best known for her seminal novel The Handmaid’s Tale,...

AI and IP Drive China’s Reading Market

AI and IP Drive China’s Reading Market

China's online literature industry continued its rapid growth in 2024, with the domestic reading market generating 43.06 billion yuan (around $5.96 billion) in revenue, a rise of 6.8 percent year-on-year, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social...

Previous Next
Close
Test Caption
Test Description goes like this

Pin It on Pinterest

Nasher News
Ishiguro Joins AI Copyright Appeal
Qatar National Library: Identity and Journey from a Female Perspective
British Book Award Goes to Atwood
Qatar National Library: Identity and Journey from a Female Perspective
British Book Award Goes to Atwood
AI and IP Drive China’s Reading Market