Freedom House repeats distorted arguments about Internet freedom in Vietnam

In recent days, a number of overseas websites have reported that Freedom House published a report on global Internet freedom on October 16, 2024, in which it continued to rank Vietnam in the group with no Internet freedom with a self-assessment score of 22/100 points. The above report once again demonstrates the extremist nature of an organization that labels itself as “for human rights ” and “for freedom”, despite Vietnam’s efforts and achievements in promoting human rights.

Freedom House and the hidden "black hands" behind

Every year, the non-governmental organization Freedom House, headquartered in Washington, DC, USA, releases an annual report called "Freedom in the World" to indicate the level of freedom and democracy in countries and territories around the world . Through this, the organization self-evaluates and ranks the freedom and democracy of more than 200 countries in the world, including Vietnam.

This year, in the so-called “2023 Annual Report”, it is not surprising that Freedom House still follows the old way, motives and methods to rank Vietnam at the bottom of the list (score 22/100 and no change as in 2020, 2021, 2022). According to the self-assessment score of the above organization, Vietnam is listed in the group of “countries without Internet freedom”.

According to the statement, the purpose of Freedom House is to "monitor the global democratization process, survey and research the implementation of political and civil liberties in countries around the world", and to be "a transparent voice for democracy and freedom in the world". However, according to public information, Freedom House's main operating budget comes from the United States and Western countries. Therefore, it can be seen that Freedom House is no different from other non-governmental organizations with the name "for human rights" that often distort the situation of democracy and human rights in Vietnam and many countries around the world such as Human Rights Watch (HRW); Amnesty International (AI) ... also receive budgets from the United States and Western countries.

Students are taught computer science and Internet features in school.

As a result, the human rights assessment standards of these organizations are consistent with the policies and interests of the governments that have funded their operations. Therefore, despite being called “human rights” non-governmental organizations, these organizations do not express an independent stance but are influenced by the political views and stances of the countries that have funded them. From being influenced by their operating funding, it can be seen that these organizations often issue annual human rights reports based on false assessments and rankings that are politically tinged and subjectively imposed.

Therefore, the organization Freedom House builds and publishes annual assessment and ranking reports such as: Freedom in the World Report, Internet Freedom Report, Freedom and Media Report... has caused many countries and international organizations in the world to react to the reliability and honesty of this organization. Organizations claiming to be "for human rights" such as Freedom House, HRW or AI and many other organizations continuously receive criticism and bans from operating in countries such as Germany, Thailand, China, Russia, Cuba, Sri Lanka, North Korea, Ethiopia, Syria... due to providing false information and conducting activities in many different forms to interfere in the internal affairs, complicating the situation in the above countries.

Looking at the activities of this organization shows the irrationality and intention to defame, discredit and discredit the image of Vietnam and many other countries in the world in the field of democracy and human rights. This is even more evident in an organization that is not present in Vietnam, does not grasp the actual situation of democracy and human rights in Vietnam, but still gives itself the right to make reports and assessments of democracy and human rights in an inferential and imposing manner. At the same time, through the above report and score of Freedom House, we can see the hands of hostile forces, reactionary organizations exiled abroad and a number of opponents in the country who have provided distorted information and defamed the situation of democracy and human rights in Vietnam.

Clear evidence refuting all false allegations

Freedom of speech, press, and Internet is the right of expression of each individual in society, reflecting the level of civilization and democracy of society. Today, freedom of the press and freedom of speech are comprehensively expanded, including: The right to freedom of professional activities of journalists; the right to freedom of publication, establishment of mass media agencies; the right to freedom of access to press information; the right to freedom of information dissemination, expression of opinions, the right to protection, and fair treatment in mass media and the Internet environment.

After nearly 40 years of renovation, Vietnam has become a bright spot in economic and social growth with many achievements. The aspiration for a prosperous Vietnam and the will to be self-reliant and self-reliant have always been the endogenous strength that drives the country forward in the process of industrialization and modernization. In particular, our Party and State always have the right guidelines and policies to ensure human rights in general, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and Internet freedom of each citizen.

Currently, the country has 6 main multimedia media agencies, 127 newspaper agencies, 671 magazine agencies (including 319 scientific magazines, 72 literary and artistic magazines), 72 radio and television agencies. There are about 41,000 people working in the press sector; of which, the radio and television sector has approximately 16,500 people. The total number of people granted press cards for the 2021-2025 term as of December 2023 is 20,508 cases. Along with domestic press agencies, many international media and news agencies have been present and operating in Vietnam.

According to Wearesocial statistics, in 2023, Vietnam will have 77.93 million Internet users, equivalent to 79.1% of the population. With this impressive result, Vietnam is the country with the 12th highest number of Internet users in the world, ranking 6th out of 35 countries/territories in Asia. Vietnamese users spend an average of nearly 7 hours per day participating in Internet-related activities. The rate of daily Internet users is up to 94%.

Not stopping there, on October 15, 2024, in Hanoi, the Military Industry - Telecommunications Group (Viettel) officially announced the launch of the 5G network with more than 6,500 BTS stations, covering 100% of the capitals of 63/63 provinces, cities, industrial parks, tourist areas, seaports, airports, hospitals, universities. With the completion of research, testing and widespread coverage of the 5G product ecosystem, both hardware and software, Vietnam has entered the top 5 countries with 5G technology autonomy.

According to a recent survey by the market research company Data Reportal (Singapore), among the 10 countries with the most Facebook, TikTok and YouTube users in the world, Vietnam ranked 6th, 7th and 9th, respectively. Specifically, Vietnam has 66.2 million Facebook users, 50.6 million TikTok users, 63 million YouTube users. Along with the development of the country, the opportunities for ethnic minorities in our country to access information are increasingly expanding, with the rate of ethnic minority households using the Internet reaching 61.3%, an increase of more than 9 times compared to 2015 - according to the results of the 2019 Population and Housing Census. Comparing the rate of households using the Internet by socio-economic region shows that the highest rate belongs to the Southeast region (78.3%) and the lowest belongs to the Central Highlands region (46.1%). Among the 53 ethnic minorities, the Hoa ethnic group has the highest rate of households using the Internet (83.7%), followed by the Ngai ethnic group (81.9%) and the lowest is the La Hu ethnic group (10.2%). According to the SEA 2023 Report recently released by Google and Temasek, Vietnam's digital economy is on the rise and will reach 45 billion USD by 2025.

On March 20, 2024, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network released the 10th annual World Happiness Report, stating that Vietnam's happiness index increased by 11 places, from 65th (in 2023) to 54th with an average score of 6.043. The national happiness index rankings are based on survey results in 143 countries and territories. That is the truth, Vietnam always attaches importance to caring for happiness and comprehensive human development, protecting and ensuring human rights and legitimate and legal interests of people, respecting and implementing international treaties on human rights that our country has signed.

Vietnam's active participation in the Human Rights Council and its practical and meaningful contributions to the common work of the United Nations in the spirit of "mutual respect, dialogue and cooperation, ensuring all rights for all" are objective realities. In particular, these achievements have been highly appreciated by the international community, as Surya Deva (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to development) has acknowledged Vietnam's role as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 term and Vietnam's responsible and active participation in the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism on Human Rights (UPR).

Through concrete actions, not only does it demonstrate the commitment of a responsible member state, but it also objectively and transparently reflects Vietnam’s development and continuous efforts in respecting, protecting, and ensuring the implementation of human rights. This truth refutes the arguments that distort the truth, deceive public opinion, and misrepresent the Party’s guidelines and policies, the State’s policies, and laws as “not respecting human rights” and “violating human rights”…

The above figures show that Vietnam has always been consistent in its policy of respecting and protecting basic human freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of access to information, freedom of the Internet in general and social networks in particular. This has been stipulated in the 2013 Constitution, specified in many laws, decrees and other legal documents, and Vietnam is taking steps to improve the legal system, means and raise awareness to protect human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of the Internet.

Once again, Freedom House has used the guise of “freedom” and “human rights” to make biased, biased, and untrue assessments of Vietnam. Stringing together the actions and deeds of Freedom House over the years shows the “black hands” of hostile forces and reactionary organizations in exile abroad through organizations in the name of democracy and human rights to sabotage Vietnam; not only reflecting falsely and distorting Internet freedom, defaming the human rights picture, but also taking advantage of Internet freedom to interfere in Vietnam’s internal affairs.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Chong-dien-bien-hoa-binh/freedom-house-lai-tai-dien-luan-dieu-xuyen-tac-ve-quyen-tu-do-internet-tai-viet-nam-i748486/