Hanoi, Vietnam, Sep 18, 2008 / 00:19 am
Vietnamese state media reports targeting Catholics who are demonstrating for the return of confiscated church properties have been exposed for inventing false Catholic critics of the protesters. The media have attributed manufactured quotations to actual Catholics and have presented a beggar as a critical Catholic parishioner. They have even gone so far as to name a man who has been dead for several years as a detractor.
Judge Vu Kim My, a Catholic prosecutor in the Diocese of Phat Diem, accused a September 15 article in the People’s Police newspaper of putting words in his mouth about the Thai Ha Church property dispute.
“I confirm that I never said anything relating to Thai Ha, I never asked for the punishment [against the protestors], I did not mention God in my answers,” he said.
Judge Vu claimed that the newspaper reporter only asked him two questions, both of which related to general knowledge of the law.