Hanoi urged to bring back exile

Hanoi urged to bring back exile

HANOI (AFP): The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) said on Wednesday it had sent a letter to Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong urging him to allow exiled journalist Doan Viet Hoat to return home.

"Sending a critic into exile may silence the messenger but will not silence the message," WAN said in the letter to Luong, according to a press release from its Paris headquarters.

"The place of Doan Viet Hoat and others who are expelled for articulating their opinions will be taken up by other brave men and women," the letter said.

Hoat, a journalist and writer who was imprisoned for more than 20 years, was released on Sept. 1 as part of a mass amnesty granted by Luong, in which nearly 5,200 prisoners were granted freedom.