Time: A Show (and Tell) Trial in Vietnam

Friday, Mar. 30, 2007 By KAY JOHNSON/HANOI

Catholic priest Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly in a courtroom in Vietnam’s central province of Thua Thien Hue, Friday March 30, 2007. A Vietnamese court sentenced the dissident Catholic priest to eight years in prison for “anti-government activities” [ie, speaking and organizing folks freely - ADM (quotes mine)], after a dramatic trial Friday in which a defiant Ly shouted denunciations of the ruling Communist Party.

Osamu Hirabayashi / Kyodo News / AP

Another bit of nice flack handling by Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture and Information (MoCI).

This ever-so evocative pic of a handsome priest being hauled off in cuffs by two ugly cops to a communist gulag for almost a decade, simply for speaking his mind and trying to promote an alternative to one-party rule, got published in AP and the Kyodo News, among others.

The full story, beyond the caption above, was ripped from the online version of one of the world’s biggest print publishers, Time, Inc.

Read the full Time article. Learn more about Vietnam and media scene from the BBC.