Best & Worst of CPAC's Free Speech Ratings: Vietnam

Vietnam ranks as one of the worst countries for freedom of speech in CPAC’s inaugural Freedom of Speech Ratings with a 10% rating.  

The Communist Party of Vietnam imposes an authoritarian, one-party rule on the country, which is a known human rights violator. The Vietnam government’s treatment of Pham Doan Trang earned the country its low rating in CPAC’s Freedom of Speech Ratings.  

Activist Pham Doan Trang criticized Vietnam's human rights record at the United Nations. In 2020, she was imprisoned by the Vietnamese government. Watchdog groups believe that her imprisonment is retaliation for her statements to the UN. Trang was convicted of "conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam". On December 14, 2021, she was sentenced to nine years in prison where she is believed to be suffering from several health conditions without medical treatment.  

Additionally, the Vietnamese government frequently uses broad cybersecurity laws to persecute critics of the government. Even when dissenters flee to neighboring countries such as Thailand, the government of Vietnam pursues them for deportation.  

CPAC rated imprisonment for presenting forbidden ideas at 20% if the country allows independent media and 10% if the country does not allow independent media. Since Vietnam does not allow independent media, Vietnam’s earned a Freedom of Speech Rating of 10%. 

Read the full brief here.  

Not every case of imprisonment for speech gets widespread media attention. If you are aware of a case in which a person was imprisoned for speech and received a harsher sentence than the political prisoner who we feature in the scorecard, please send the details of the case to slaird@conservative.org. To meet our methodological criteria, the person must be 1) imprisoned or sentenced to prison for speech that would have been protected under the US first amendment, 2) a citizen of the country in which they are imprisoned, 3) received a sentence of imprisonment for at least one month OR were imprisoned without being sentenced for at least 3 months 4) not imprisoned for any actual crime during the same period for which they were sentenced for a speech crime. 

CPAC vehemently opposes the views of many of the political prisoners featured in the Freedom of Speech Ratings. Political prisoners are featured in the Freedom of Speech Ratings for the purpose of revealing the state of legal Freedom of Speech protection in their countries. Political prisoners are selected based on the objective facts of their cases; each selected prisoner is the person who received the harshest sentence in that country for speech that would have been protected by the US First Amendment. CPAC stands for the right to Freedom of Speech for everyone, even people whose views we vehemently oppose.