BBC News Online: World: Asia-Pacific

Banned Vietnam book on internet

The novel, A Tale of the Year 2000, is written by Bui Ngoc Tan, a Vietnamese journalist who spent several years in a detention camp.

A spokesman for Reporters Sans Frontiers said the story illustrated the methods used by the Vietnamese Government to suppress intellectuals.

The novel is a 600-page autobiographical novel that tells the story of Tuan, a North Vietnamese journalist who is unfairly sent to prison and then forbidden from publishing his work.

The novel, which is loosely based on the personal experience of the author, includes detailed descriptions of the conditions in Vietnam's detention camps where the author spent the years 1968 to 1973.

Black market

Last year the Vietnamese authorities banned the book and ordered copies to be seized and destroyed.

The ministry of culture said the book had violated a law that requires all texts to contribute to the cause of building and defending socialist Vietnam.

In spite of the authorities' efforts, some photocopies have been available on the black market in Vietnam where they can fetch more than ten times the cover price.

Firewall

Reporters Sans Frontieres, a Paris-based organisation, has now put some extracts of the book on the internet.

The Vietnamese authorities regularly firewall or block websites which they consider sensitive.

But it was still possible to access the extracts one day after they were put up.

However, some say that publishing the novel electronically is unlikely to have much impact, as internet access within Vietnam is limited.