The other Vietnam and the suppression of press freedom
I imagine having a very stable and decent job in a foreign land for many years, then one day being told by your Embassy that you need to return to your home country to renew your passport. Just as your new passport was issued, your government refuses to let you have it and even confiscated your ID card.
You’re unable to return to work as you can’t leave your country, and instead you’re subjected to multiple interrogations by security officials lasting many hours at a time. While you are not imprisoned, security officers follow you everywhere you go. Your Facebook page is now deactivated, and they ‘guard’ your parents’ home.
What was the ‘crime’? Working for the BBC Vietnamese-language service in Bangkok, writing and broadcasting critically about Vietnam’s state of politics and human rights – and being a Vietnamese citizen.
It’s been months now, according to the BBC statement earlier this week that their unnamed female Vietnamese reporter was unable to return to work in Bangkok.
In a bizarre turn of events, the BBC would not reveal her name.
The BBC, normally known for its detailed coverage, issued the following short statement this week.
BBC statement on journalist in Vietnam
Published: 28 October 2025
“One of our journalists has been unable to leave Vietnam for several months as the authorities have withheld their ID card and their renewed passport. During this time our journalist was subject to multiple days of questioning by the authorities. The BBC journalist was in Vietnam for a routine passport renewal and to visit family.
“We are deeply concerned about our journalist’s wellbeing and urge the authorities to allow them to leave immediately, providing them with their renewed passport so they can return to work.”
A Vietnamese friend of hers told me this week he has “no idea about why and how they had decided not to reveal her name.”
My BBC source, speaking under a condition of anonymity, told me a few days ago that the decision to not reveal her name was for the journalist’s own safety, with no further elaboration.
One possible logical explanation is that, as a Vietnamese national, she is at the mercy of her own government in Vietnam. She may feel that if she is publicly identified, it could backfire and push the repressive Vietnamese authorities into a corner, and she would face more severe backlash. Or perhaps her parents would face immense social pressures from neighbours.
So basically this Vietnamese journalist is in a twilight zone as I write these words – not under house arrest but being monitored and unable to leave Vietnam. She is ‘free’ and not free at the same time.
Basically, she’s still tactically leaving room for the Vietnamese authorities to save face by just letting her go as British press such as The Independent reported on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is being urged to raise the issue when Mr To Lam, Vietnamese Communist Party Secretary-General, visits London.
Veteran Bangkok-based human rights defender Phil Robertson told me this week in an interview for Khaosod English that the journalist has been asked to formally acknowledge her participation in the writing of 18 articles on the BBC Vietnamese-language service.
“At the end, the MPS [Ministry of Public Security] officials compelled her to sign 18 of her past articles, formally acknowledging her involvement in writing them — which is precisely what officials preparing a possible criminal charge would do,” Robertson told me.
Robertson added that: “There’s no doubt that they are using her as a hostage to intimidate the other reporters at the Bangkok-based BBC Vietnamese service, which reports daily in Vietnamese language about what is happening in the country. This is particularly important to the ruling Communist Party which is preparing for its major national Congress in Hanoi in January 2026.”
Let us call a spade a spade. In a country with very limited press freedom like Vietnam, the Vietnamese authorities must either perceive her as a spreader of ‘disinformation’ about Vietnam, or a spy, or both – thus a traitor.
Even in Thailand, some ultra-conservative hold such views towards Thai NGOs, or Thai NGOs funded by foreign NGOs or governments, as well as some Thai journalists working for foreign news agencies, perceiving them as their enemies, a traitor even.
The fact that this journalist is particularly known for her support of press freedom and freedom of expression only makes it worse.
According to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Vietnam ranks 173rd out of 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index – one of the worst countries for press freedom in the world and it’s among the world’s top jailers of journalists. (Thailand is ranked at Number 85 out of 180 countries, although as a responder to RSF’s annual survey on Thailand, I think Thailand is overrated, but that’s for another story)
“Vietnam’s traditional media are closely controlled by the single party. Independent reporters and bloggers are often jailed, making Vietnam one of the world’s biggest prisons for journalists,” RSF stated, adding that at present, 28 journalists are incarcerated. “Independent bloggers and journalists are the only sources of freely reported news and information in a country where all the media follow orders from the Communist Party, in power since 1954 in the North and since 1975 in the South. With 86.4 million users – the seventh highest number in the world – Facebook is Vietnam’s most popular online platform and serves as a major tool for circulating news and information.”
While the BBC earlier this week issued a statement calling for the Vietnamese authorities to allow the journalist to return to Thailand to work, I think any expectations must also be tamed by the ugly realities.
Back in 2017, three years after the European Union (EU) downgraded its relationship with Thailand due to the May 2014 military coup which was led by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, it had decided to pursue gradual political re-engagement. I recalled that while attending a diplomatic function at the Sukhothai Hotel in Bangkok in December that year, a diplomat from one of the Northern European Embassies told me that the EU has decided that it made no sense to continue limiting the ties with the Thai military junta as the human rights situation is much more repressive in Vietnam and yet the EU maintains a normal relationship with Hanoi.
Back to the issue of the unidentified Vietnamese journalist, since she works for the BBC, which is one of the most influential global media organisations and a British public broadcaster, her case will be a test of will of not just the BBC but the British government itself.
I can only wish her ample fortitude.
By Pravit Rojanaphruk – Khaosod English – November 2, 2025