Dear friends,

The citizen-journalist Do Cong Duong, who had been jailed for four years in inhuman detention conditions, died on Tuesday August 2. Deprived of care and seriously ill, his state of health deteriorated considerably due to the degrading treatment inflicted on him in detention.

He was serving an eight-year sentence in a northern Vietnamese prison. Among other things, he often live-streamed video reports on the “Tieng Dan TV” Facebook page about corruption-related issues and land seizures by the state, which led to his arrest in January 2018.

We are deeply shocked to learn of Do Cong Duong's death, victim of a terrible persecution from the authorities who even refused to hand his body over to his family after his death.

We call on the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Alice Jill Edwards, as well as the international community to take action immediately to ensure the survival of the 39 journalists still detained in Vietnamese jails before another tragedy happens.

Help RSF ensure that Do Cong Duong's death serves to put an end to the appalling methods of detention of independent journalists in Vietnam.