Man jailed six years for anti-state propaganda

Nguyen Van Nghiem, 57, was accused of "making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam," the Vietnam News Agency reported.

The indictment said he had used several social media accounts to share posts and videos to comment on Vietnam’s political and social issues since 2011. In January 2018, Nghiem was fined VND49 million ($2,100) by the Hoa Binh authorities for posting two videos containing information that wrongly reflected history and "harmed people’s reputation."

But Nghiem did not pay the fine and continued to post similar content, the court heard.

From June 2018 to June 2019, Nghiem created and managed several Facebook and YouTube accounts to share videos online. The court heard that 31 of these videos contained false information and anti-state content that disparaged authorities and sowed confusion among the people.

Local reports said Nghiem has admitted his wrongdoing.