BBC Vietnamese staff rebelling against the Vietnamese government ?

source: http://namvietnews.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/bbc-vietnamese-staff-rebelling-against-the-vietnamese-government/

BBC Vietnamese staff rebelling against the Vietnamese government ?

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Nam

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Hmongs in Laos begged to be rescued by the Western world

Ever since BBC Vietnamese has its “change of the guard” – replacing pre-1975 staff with younger staff that came from Vietnam after the war ended on April 30, 1975 – I have been following its news reporting with skepticism.
True to my doubts about its news reportage being used as the Vietnamese government unofficial channel to the Western world, the new BBC Vietnamese staff has dutifully used BBC’s reputation (un-biased reporting) to further the Vietnamese (communist) government’s aim in its ‘winning the hearts and minds’ campaign against the so-called Viet-Kieus – a deragotary term the communists used for Vietnamese living abroad.
BBC Vietnamese never reports any news that it considers tantamount to tarnishing the Vietnamese government such as cases of Chinese navy kidnappinging Vietnamese fishermen in the disputed Paracel archipelago, holding them for ransom, or killing them; or many a demonstration or protest held by farmers getting their land appropriated by corrupt officials; or harsh repressive measures by the Vietnamese government agaisnt human-rights activists.
The most glaring example of BBC Vietnamese being under the Vietnamese government’s control is its sytematic repression or omission of news and events of Vietnamese living abroad, especially when they stage with fanfare public protest demonstrations against Vietnamese dignitaries visiting other countries like France, the USA, etc. in which the use of the now-defunct Republic of Vietnam’s flag as the symbol (rallying cry) of freedom against communist totalitarianism and democracy is a must.  Vietnamese living overseas contributed 3/4 of Vietnam’s net income (8.5 billion US dollars last year versus 12 billion total net income), this group’s activities should be considered in BBC Vietnamese’s daily reporting.  In other words, giving news readers inside Vietnam the false sense of world view about Vietnam is BBC Vietnamese’s most important objective regarding the bamboo curtain has finally lifted now that Vietnam has become a member of the WTO.
When push comes to shove, BBC Vietnamese only reports the Vietnamese-government-sanctioned version of the events.  Many cases have been maliciously reported in the attempt to smear the accuseds’ reputation.  Since internet news is censored in Vietnam, readers in Vietnam would get the feeling that whatever is reported on BBC Vietnamese represents the world’s view about news in Vietnam, and thusly trusts the Vietnamese government’s conduct.
When the Vietnamese communist party decided to normalize its relations with China in 1990, Vietnamese living overseas started gathering evidence that shows Vietnamese communists are selling Vietnam out to its century-old nemesis: China.  Border pacts signed between Vietnam and China show demarcation lines re-drawn to China’s advantage, both on land and at sea.  While other countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines ‘put their foot down’ in their dispute with China concerning the South China sea, Vietnam only stages its protests via the diplomatic channel – de facto giving China a carte blanche complete rule in disputed areas, including killing Vietnamese.
In April 2010, BBC Vietnamese allowed an unknown Ph.D. candidate named Do Ngoc Bich publishing her ‘research’ article on BBC titled ‘Another viewpoint about nationalism‘ in which she literally proclaimed that Vietnamese descended from Chinese, and therefore, are Chinese.  She chided those Vietnamese who rail against the Vietnamese government for kowtowing to China.  This article certainly created an uproar among Vietnamese.  Using Do Ngoc Bich to gauge Vietnamese’s thoughts about its close relationship with China, the Vietnamese communists, through its controlled BBC Vietnamese staff, has learned that complete takeover of BBC Vietnamese at this time is out of the question.
Government-controlled newspapers inside Vietnam recently reported about a case of a man named Nguyen Cong Nhat wrongly jailed and subsequently died in the hands of police due to one of the local police chief’s desire to steal Mr. Nhat’s wife away from him.  Even with obvious evidence of Mr. Nhat’s wife releasing her recorded phone conversations with the police chief who killed her husband, BBC Vietnamese still throws its weight around by sowing doubts in its readers when questioning Mr. Nhat’s wife’s fight for justice for her husband’s death in an article titled ‘A homicide in Binh Duong: police’s sexual harassment ?‘.  They keyword in this article is the question mark, which BBC Vietnamese tried to give police the benefits of the doubt while at the same time dealt a blow to the victim’s image by giving its readers the image of the death of Mr. Nhat is the result of his wife’s doing as being the object of sexual desire.
I could cite many more cases of BBC Vietnamese being used as the Vietnamese government’s mouthpiece to the world, but I would stop here for now to bring up another article of enormous importance regarding the young staff currently working at BBC Vietnamese group.  As stated above, up till now, BBC Vietnamese has dutifully fulfilled its requirements from the Vietnamese governement when it decided to penetrate BBC with its (spies) newspeople.
The article that caught my attention is titled ‘Big rebellion by Hmongs in Dien Bien‘.  I checked BBC English – Asia-Pacifice subsection – and could find no news reports for the same event to make sure that BBC Vietnamese did act on its own volition, and not from translating into Vietnamese from its parent BBC Worldwide since it’s a requirement to do so for languages other than English. (1)
Few things come to mind when reading the Hmong’s rebellion article.   Feeling of remorse after hearing so much about corruption and police brutality ? Fed up with watching Vietnamese suffer under communist’s rule ?  Letting the communists know that it (BBC Vietnamese) can no longer be used as the Party’s mouthpiece ?
It’s known for years that communist governments in Indochina (Vietnam and its stooges Cambodia and Laos) have systematically committed genocide against indigenous peoples like the Hmongs in Laos and the Montagnards in Vietnam, BBC Vietnamese never mentioned these mass killings or atrocities while independent (non-Vietnamese) news services such as Al Jazeera, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, etc. regularly report these news on their websites.
Regardless of why BBC Vietnamese decided to upset the Vietnamese government by reporting unsavory news about the regime, I’m glad to see this article written.  Maybe BBC Vietnamese finally has a change of heart.
(1) After my article was published on the web, the English version of the same story appeared on BBC English.  The Vietnamese version was dated 10:31 GMT and the English version 11:39 ET.  I’m not sure about the significance of the two different time zones of both versions, although the English version’s timestamp indicates the story originated at much earlier time than the Vietnamese version, therefore my deduction of BBC Vietnamese staff daring to step out of line of the Vietnamese government’s control is unwarranted.  Still, I maintained the fact that I did search BBC English and didn’t find the related story.