It looks like “freedom of speech” is not a highly encouraged expression in Vietnam. What do you expect to happen to an 8^th grader who posted a parody of Ho Chi Minh speech through his Facebook account? Apart from a couple of shares, the kid got insanely famous. Not because the parody was awesome; it’s because she got suspended for one year over this apparently harmless post…

Talk about setting the bar high for classmates. The state controlled Vietnamese media says that the post was offensive and was not received well by Ho Chi Minh supporters from all over the country. The little girl, on the other hand, is of the view that she made that post for “fun sake” – And of course, other than having some degree of general knowledge, what would an 8 grader know about country politics and its current stance against freedom of speech?

The said student’s post at Facebook, highlighted language from a famous speech, once made by Ho Chi Minh in year 1946. Back then, the speech appealed for resistance against the French colonialists. Media respondents and Vietnamese politicians said that the girl’s post had impacted her fellow students and distorted the country’s history by causing insult to the well-known leader.

Ho Chi Minch is regarded highly in Vietnam for liberating the country to independence against French rule. At the moment, the communist government is against Freedom of Speech. As for the girl, I hope she gets admission to some other school or maybe ends up spending a year off on holidays. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013 at 6:21 AM and is filed under Latest News, National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.