Vietnam arrests blogger for anti-state propaganda

HANOI, Vietnam — Police in Vietnam have arrested a blogger for anti-state writings which they said distorted the truth, tarnished the country’s leaders and instigated the public to oppose the government.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 37, was accused of conducting propaganda against the Communist state and taken into custody in south central Khanh Hoa province Monday, the police said on their website Tuesday.

Quynh, who blogged under the name of Me Nam or Mother Mushroom, has been blogging about the government’s human rights abuses.

Her mother was quoted by the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers as saying Quynh did nothing wrong, but just spoke the truth.

Quynh was detained for nine days in 2009 for printing T-shirts with slogan opposing the construction of a state-owned bauxite mining project. TVJ