Another Vietnamese man held on anti-state propaganda charges

Huynh Truong Ca, 47, was arrested on Tuesday in Tien Giang Province, a two-hour drive to the west of Dong Thap Province in southern Vietnam. Police said he was on his way to Ho Chi Minh City to instigate protests.

Huynh Truong Ca, 47, is being held at a police station in Dong Thap Province for carrying out anti-state propaganda.

They said Ca was part of a terrorist organization called Constitution.

He posted articles, video clips and livestream reports with “distorted information” that defamed the government, State leaders and local police, the police alleged.

They said he posted articles on social media recently to incite public protests on the occasion of Vietnam’s Independence Day, (September 2) but his plan was foiled by security forces.

Under Vietnam’s Penal Code, anti-government propaganda can be punished with up to 20 years in jail. Several people were imprisoned last year for the offense.

A court in Ho Chi Minh City last May sentenced Bui Hieu Vo, 56, to four years and six months in prison for "conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam."

In February, a Ho Chi Minh City court sentenced Facebooker Ho Van Hai, 54, to four years in jail for posting articles that it said slandered and distorted the policies of the Party and the state on his Facebook page and blog.

Half of Vietnam’s population are choosing to get their news on social media, a survey by the Pew Research Center has found.

Facebook is the country's most popular social network, with around 64 million active accounts, accounting for 3 percent of global Facebookers, according to a report released in July last year by social media marketing agency We Are Social.