Anti-corruption journalist Hoang Khuong arrested

Journalist Hoang Khuong smiled while police were searching his house

Police in Ho Chi Minh City Monday noon arrested Tuoi Tre newspaper’s journalist Hoang Khuong on charges he indirectly gave bribes to a police officer. Mr. Khuong is a prize-winning journalist famous for exposé articles into police corruption.


The receiver of the bribe is Huynh Minh Duc, former traffic officer in Binh Thanh District who had been arrested earlier.

The police also searched Mr. Khuong’s house and work office.

Traffic police officer Huynh Minh Duc captured receiving bribes. This photo was shot by  journalist Hoang Khuong

Mr. Khuong will be detained for four months pending investigation

According to the police, 37-year-old Nguyen Van Khuong (the journalist’s real name) was indicted since he, through Ton That Hoa, gave VND15 million (US$713) to former police cop Duc in exchange for Duc’s help in releasing a motorbike that had been impounded in a traffic violation case.

Ton That Hoa is director of Duy Nguyen Private Enterprise and has been detained for brokering the bribe.

In early 2011, amidst the serious traffic violation situation causing concerns among the public, Tuoi Tre newspaper’s Editorial Board, in line with the Government’s orientation, published a series of articles on the topic “preventing traffic accidents.”

Many of Tuoi Tre’s reporters and contributors wrote a number of articles under the topic to show the traffic reality and possible solutions to reduce traffic accidents.

Hoang Khuong also wrote many investigative articles, including "F..k you, pay the road bribes", "Where road accidents are settled off the records" and "Traffic cop takes bribe to return bike,” which were  published on Tuoi Tre’s Vietnamese-language daily newspaper.

As shown in the latter article, the Binh Thanh district police, during their crack-down on a large scale illegal motorbike race in April 2011, temporarily impounded the motorbike of Tran Van Hoa, a young man who had ridden the vehicle in dangerous manner.

At that time, Ton That Hoa suggested Duc help release the motorbike of Tran Van Hoa and Duc agreed.

The then traffic police officer Duc later received the VND15 million bribe and returned the bike to Tran Van Hoa.

On November 28, the HCMC investigation police requested Tuoi Tre and the Press Department “to review the case and revoke the press card of reporter Nguyen Van Khuong”.
According to Khuong’s report to the Editorial Board, he had committed “professional shortcomings” when he was involved in indirectly giving the bribe money to Duc.

After reviewing Khuong’s acts, Tuoi Tre Editorial Board has given him a reprimand and suspended him.

The Editorial Board and Khuong’s family have invited lawyer Phan Trung Hoai, head of the Phan Trung Hoai Law Office, and lawyer Phan Duc Linh, of the HCMC Bar Association, to defend Khuong’s rights and interests.

Lawyer Hoai was at the scene when police searched Khuong’ house.
In 2010, Mr. Khuong won second prize at the city Press Award for an article about bribery at customs checkpoints.

Source Tuoitrenews.vn

Read more »

Posted in: Society,Vietnam

William Hague: Burma to free more 'political prisoners'

Burma has vowed to free more political prisoners, William Hague said after meeting his counterpart during the first visit to Burma by a UK foreign secretary for 55 years.

Wunna Maung Lwi also promised that changes in Burma were "irreversible".
But he later did not use the word political when referring to prisoners.

William Hague is the first British foreign secretary to visit Burma since 1955

Mr Hague's visit is the latest by top world diplomats after Burma's first elections in 20 years which brought in a nominally civilian government.
Since then the new administration has freed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and begun a process of dialogue.
Last month she formally registered her National League for Democracy as a political party, after boycotting the 2010 polls because of electoral laws that prevented her taking part.
In December US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Burma, in what was seen as an endorsement of the reform process - although Western observers say much more is needed.
Stress on development Mr Hague is the first British foreign secretary to visit Burma since 1955.
In the capital Nay Pyi Taw he was due to hold talks with President Thein Sein, a former top general who stepped down to contest the polls as a civilian, and a host of other top officials.
He will then travel to Rangoon, Burma's commercial capital, to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, representatives of some of Burma's ethnic minority groups and dissidents.
Ms Suu Kyi's party plans to contest by-elections in April that could see her elected to parliament. Her party secured a landslide victory in polls in 1990 but was never allowed to take power.
William Hague made the comments after meeting his counterpart in Nay Pyi Taw.

Analysis

Rachel Harvey BBC News, Rangoon

William Hague is the latest in a series of high-profile diplomats to seek to engage the new government in Burma and to try to bolster nascent signs of reform.
Western officials have been encouraged by recent changes, including legalising trade unions, lifting some media restrictions and a limited release of political prisoners.
But there are still grave concerns about Burma's human rights record and the fact that several hundred political detainees remain behind bars.
The different messages by the two senior diplomats after their talks in Nay Pyi Taw may be due to the different audiences they were addressing.

"The foreign minister has reaffirmed commitments that have been made to release political prisoners," he told reporters.

"He said the changes are irreversible and I welcome that way of thinking," Mr Hague added.
"I stressed that the world will judge the government by its actions."
But in an interview with the BBC Burmese service later, Wunna Maung Lwi said Burma did not acknowledge there were political prisoners.
They are all criminals, he said, and it was up to the president to decide when prisoners were released - adding that prisoners had already been freed on three recent occasions.
The government, he said, was focused on the development of the whole country.
Between 600 and 1,000 journalists, dissidents and monks who led anti-government protests in 2007 are thought to remain behind bars in Burma.
There is now a general acceptance that change is under way in Burma, says the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Rangoon, but it is not clear how far or how fast any transition will be.
And the different account of the talks by the two senior diplomats may merely be explained by the different audiences they were addressing, says our correspondent.

Source: BBC

Read more »

Posted in: Asia,Politics

Top China airlines to ignore EU carbon tax, body says

China is one of the world's fastest growing airline markets

China's biggest airlines will not pay a new European Union tax aimed at cutting carbon emissions, their trade body has said.

On 1 January, the EU brought airlines under its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which levies a charge on flights based on their carbon emissions.
The tax has been criticised by China, India, the US and Canada.
Chai Haibo of the China Air Transport Association said that its members would not cooperate with the ETS.
The China Air Transport Association (CATA) represents companies including Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Hainan Airlines.
Airlines which do not comply with the new EU tax can be fined and even prohibited from flying into the region.
Last year, it was claimed the plan could cost Chinese airlines 95m euros ($124m, £79m) in extra annual costs.
"The CATA, on behalf of Chinese airlines, is strongly against the EU's improper practice of unilaterally forcing international airlines into its ETS," Mr Chai said on Thursday.
China has warned that it may implement retaliatory measures against the levy.
Other nations have also been fighting the plans.
In December, the US lost its attempt to have the issue of the new airline tax blocked by the European Court of Justice.
The US had argued that its carriers were set to lose out heavily, and that the charges violate climate change and aviation pacts.

Source BBC

Read more »

Posted in: Business,China,European