Overview
- BBC confirms a Vietnamese member of its Thai-based Vietnamese Service has been unable to leave Vietnam for months after police withheld their ID card and reissued passport.
- The journalist returned home in August to renew travel documents and was questioned over their reporting during multiple sessions, according to BBC and sources familiar with the case.
- Friends say police interrogated the journalist for five days and pressured them to acknowledge 18 BBC articles, a move rights advocates warn can precede prosecution.
- UK officials say they have raised concerns about harassment of journalists; ambassador Iain Frew met Tô Lâm and public security minister Lương Tam Quang earlier this month as calls grow for Keir Starmer to raise the case.
- Press freedom groups rank Vietnam near the bottom globally and AFP notes 28 journalists are jailed, while Vietnamese authorities have not publicly commented on this case.