A journalist who works for a state-run newspaper based in Hanoi has been sacked over scathing comments he made about Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong.
Gia dinh va Xa hoi (Family and Society) newspaper announced on Tuesday that Nguyen Dac Kien “has been fired for violating the newspaper’s regulations.”
Kien was sacked soon after he posted his article “Some words with Vietnamese Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong” on the internet.
Trong said on Monday that public suggestions that include ending the Communist Party's total control over state and society, a re-definition of the army as a non-political entity and a multi-party political system, show a “decline of politics, thoughts and morality."
In his blog, Kien rejected Trong’s comments and said, “I not only want an end to the Communist Party's total control over state and society, but also [the government] should hold a conference to establish a new institution showing the people’s will, not the party’s will, in the current constitution,” Kien wrote.
He said he strongly supports a multi-party political system for freedom, democracy, peace and progress of the people and he is in favor of the army defending the country, not any party.
Kien, who started work at the newspaper in 2008, said he was exercising his freedom of speech and thought and those who oppose these rights are reactionaries.
Speaking with the BBC, Kien said he felt a moral responsibility to write the article and he was aware there would be repercussions.
“The path to democracy and freedom requires much patience, and I still follow this path,” he said.
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