In the holiday paradise Vietnam, social media are allowed only to provide and exchange personal information. Bloggers and cyberdissidents who dare to question the government’s legitimacy or domestic policies are ruthlessly suppressed.

Political blogger Bui Thanh Hieu (1972) nevertheless uses the Internet to criticize politically hot topics, such as Vietnam’s territorial claims within China as well as its handling of land disputes with the Catholic Church. In response to this, Hieu was arrested, his computers confiscated. The license for his Internet café in Hanoi was revoked. Hieu persisted however: his blog was being read by up to 15,000 visitors per day. Because of his commitment, he was arrested and detained on numerous occasions. At the invitation of the city of Weimar, Germany, he was finally able to leave the country. There he finished Speaking in Silence. In this short story he laments, with humour and irony, the behaviour of civil servants of the special judicial, administrative and technological strike force, who control online information.

A publication of the Eva Tas Foundation.

The Eva Tas Foundation encourages publication and promotion of texts that are, no matter where and no matter how, subject to censorship.