Hanoi - Vietnam has rejected a US congressional resolution calling on it to release imprisoned bloggers and respect internet freedom, the official Vietnam News reported Friday. "Adoption of a resolution on an issue of Vietnam's internal affairs by the US House of Representatives is neither in line with the practice of relationships between countries nor with the developing relations between Vietnam and the US," the newspaper quoted government spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga as saying.
Nga's response came after Wednesday's passage of a House resolution that calls on the country to repeal laws that restrict freedom of expression on the internet and to release people imprisoned under such laws. Nga called the resolution "biased and untrue."
"In Vietnam, no one is arrested, detained or tried for expressing their views," Nga said.
One of the laws the US House criticized was Article 88 of Vietnam's legal code, which criminalizes "spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam." Earlier this month, nine dissidents were sentenced to multiyear prison terms under Article 88 for publicly criticizing government policies.
Vietnam has about 22 million internet users, or more than 25 per cent of the population, according to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications.
Regulations prohibit users from using the internet to criticize the government or the ruling Communist Party. The government has in recent months detained or imprisoned a number of popular bloggers for posting information critical of the government.
