Mar,+Derek+11


 * Vietnam Throws 4 Activists in Jail**

On January 20, a court in Vietnam convicted four activists because of subversion. The four men received sentences up to 16 years in prison, one of the men, Le Cong Dinh got sentenced to 5 years which is the least and Tran Huynh Duy Thuc received the 16 years. The four men were originally arrested in June of last year for spreading anti-government propaganda. In court, they were being charged with subversion and this charge could also come with the death penalty but it depends on somethings. Mr. Thuc, one of the men who were charged with subversion denied the claim because he was only campaigning against the corruption and trying to improve the political system. Mr. Dinh had said "From the bottom of my heart, I myself and these three other defendants had no intention to overthrow the government." He said this because he was influenced by the studies that he went to the West.

Sources: BBC:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8470110.stm The New York Times: []

Some similarities that I noticed between the two articles is that they had similar titles, "Vietnam jails democracy activists for subversion," and "Vietnam, Quelling Dissent, Gives 4 Democracy Advocates Jail Terms." They both talked about how many of jail service each person would get. Some differences that I noticed that the NY times article had quotes from the 4 men and others while BBC didn't. Also the NY times went into a little history about each of the men and how they got there in court. The NY Times had a picture of all 4 men in court while BBC just had 1 picture of just one man.

My opinion on this event is that it was good they were sent to jail if they were actually developing a plan to overthrow the government, but if not then it was a bad thing. My thinking on my opinion is that if what that Mr. Dinh said was true, then the court shouldn't have sent them to jail. But assuming they had a clear cut evidence to support their assumtion then they deserve to go to jail. = =