Ta Phong Tan

Ta Phong Tan, a ground-breaking blogger currently serving a 10 year prison sentence with two additional years of house arrest. Ms. Tan is a former Vietnamese Communist Party member and former officer in the Vietnamese security forces. After publishing online articles criticizing the policies of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), she was expelled from the security forces and CPV. In 2006, Ms. Tan started her blog “Truth and Justice,” posting essays and exposes online. She was among the first bloggers to write and comment on political news events long considered off-limits by authorities. In 2011, she was arrested and convicted of conducting propaganda against the state.