A court in An Giang Province on Sept. 4 tried and convicted a social media user and a lawyer on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the Penal Code.

Phan Ngoc Dung, 69, a YouTube user, and Bui Van Khanh, 75, a lawyer, were accused of “taking advantage of their freedoms to distort, slander, and violate the honor and dignity of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court, and the leader of the Supreme People's Court.” Dung received a three-year prison sentence, while Khanh was sentenced to two years.

The indictment declared that around the end of 2020, Dung often watched two YouTube channels named Hóng phim TV and TTAD 2, which hosted online discussions about the unjust nature of the case of Ho Duy Hai, who was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Dung had pushed for Hai’s release.

In October 2021, Dung allegedly established her own YouTube channel, Tiếng Nói Lòng Dân (The Voice of the People’s Heart), and invited attorney Khang, a lawyer from the Nam Dinh Provincial Bar Association, to answer the audience’s questions and provide legal analysis in her live streams because she knew Khang personally. State media reported that on Jan. 22, Phan Ngoc Dung surrendered himself to the Security Investigation Agency of An Giang Province Police due to the alleged defamation crimes that had been used against him.

Between October 2021 and January 21, 2024, the social media user and the lawyer reportedly hosted numerous talk shows and discussions, producing 1,200 videos on YouTube.

The Department of Cybersecurity and High-tech Crime Prevention alleges that a total of 12 video clips published on Dung's YouTube channel and her Facebook page, Dieu Nhan, contain information that “distorts, slanders, and violates the honor and dignity of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court and the leader of the Supreme People's Court” and “insults the Vietnamese judiciary,” which “negatively affects social order and societal safety.”