Day: October 10, 2022

Jakarta, 7 October 2022 – ASEAN Foundation, with support from the US Mission to ASEAN and Google.org, proudly officiated today 20 members of the ASEAN Youth Advisory Group (ASEAN YAG) who will lead an awareness-raising campaign to combat misinformation and disinformation across ASEAN.

The 20 young changemakers were selected out of hundreds of candidates for their ability to become the voice of good to reach out to the grassroot communities and raise the awareness of digital literacy as well as demonstrate their deep understanding of local context. Hailing from across ten ASEAN countries, they share the same mission to fight misinformation and disinformation in the region.

ASEAN is not immune to the threat of misinformation and disinformation. With increasing internet penetration across the ASEAN region, information has a powerful role in society, but there is a lag in awareness of how to identify misleading information. The members of ASEAN YAG will play pivotal roles in bridging this gap by spreading awareness about the importance of digital literacy in their communities through creative, and, most importantly, localised approach.

In Indonesia, the work of ASEAN YAG will be led by Faransina Olivia Rumere and Nissi Taruli Felicia. Both have been working closely with vulnerable communities, such as deaf and marginalised people in the country. Before carrying out their role as members of ASEAN YAG, Olivia and Nissi will receive a series of capacity building that will equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to conduct successful campaigns.

The inauguration of the members of ASEAN YAG marks another key milestone in the journey of ASEAN Digital Literacy Programme (ASEAN DLP), a 2-year regional initiative that aims to build stronger digital literacy among ASEAN people. Supported by USD 1.5 million grant from Google.org, the ASEAN Foundation will conduct, through ASEAN DLP, a series of impactful activities that include deep-dive research, curriculum development, and training-of-trainer with a goal of equipping over 1,000 trainers with the right skills and materials to deliver digital literacy training to more than 100,000 people in their local communities.

“We are proud to support the ASEAN Foundation in empowering people across the region with crucial media literacy skills that will be key in enabling them to remain vigilant as they navigate an increasingly online world. There is no doubt that the youth leaders and changemakers appointed today will play a pivotal role in reaching deep within their communities to leverage various technologies and empower themselves, as well as those around them, to tackle misinformation. We are looking forward to the strides that this initiative will bring in creating a safer digital space within the ASEAN region”, Marija Ralic, Lead for Google.org APAC.

“Today’s inauguration serves as one of the most important achievements of ASEAN DLP. These 20 young changemakers will stand at the forefront of our efforts in strengthening the digital literacy skills of ASEAN citizens, transforming them into agents of change that can combat online misinformation and disinformation,” said Dr. Yang Mee Eng, Executive Director of ASEAN Foundation.

“This is a world-class program – through the campaigns this Youth Advisory Group creates and the education, training, and digital upskilling provided by the ASEAN Foundation and supported by Google.org, more than 100,000 people of all ages and experience levels over the next two years will be given the tools and knowledge they need to fight back against misinformation. This partnership, which was announced at the May 2022 U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit, is yet another example of the commitment of the American people to Southeast Asia.” U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN Yohannes Abraham.

In the event, more than 30 key stakeholders of ASEAN attended and witnessed the inauguration, including the representatives of 15 local implementing partners of ASEAN DLP. The event was opened with a series of speeches from ASEAN Foundation and the US Mission to ASEAN. It was then proceeded by a talk show on the power of information, the trend on disinformation today, and how to become a smart digital citizen involving Arianne Santoso from Google Indonesia, Cindy May McGuire, the crowned Miss International Indonesia 2022, and Nissi Taruli Felicia, a striking hearing-impaired, as representative from the ASEAN YAG.

 

 

 

Source: ASEAN Foundation

A former senior official of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Commission of Internal Affairs has accused the Chief Judge of the Hanoi People’s Court, Nguyen Huu Chinh, of covering up the crimes of his subordinates who were handling a case that has lasted more than ten years. 

Lawyer Le Van Hoa defends two leaders of the Laos-Vietnam Mineral Joint Venture Company who were convicted by the People’s Court of Ba Dinh District, Hanoi of “faking the seal” of the joint venture.  

In the third first-instance hearing this February, Thai Luong Tri, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company, was sentenced to 2 years, 10 months and 21 days, while Duong Minh Hai was sentenced to 4 years, 5 months and 12 days. The prison terms are equal to the time the two were detained for investigation in 2009. 

Lawyer Hoa said straight after the trial he sent a petition to the Supreme People’s Procuracy and the Supreme People’s Court to denounce the Trial Panel of the People’s Court of Ba Dinh district and two individuals: Nguyen Quang Trung, Director of the People’s Procuracy of Ba Dinh district and his deputy, Tran Manh Ha. He said they prosecuted two innocent individuals and ignored the crimes of others.

The lawyer also denounced the district court and the two officials for serious violations of the Criminal Procedure Code, 2015. He said according to its provisions, the district court does not have the authority to try Vietnamese people committing crimes abroad, only a provincial, city or higher court can do that.

 “The Supreme People’s Procuracy transferred my denunciation to Nguyen Huu Chinh, Chief Judge of the Hanoi Court for settlement due to his competence,” Hoa told RFA.

 “For more than half a year [he] has not replied to my denunciation. Until today [he] did not answer whether or not [he would consider] my petition, so I think [he] is seriously violating the law by covering up [for] his subordinates,” the lawyer said, adding that he had sent his petition to leaders of the Communist Party, the State and other authorities as part of his denunciation of Chinh.

‘Forging the seal of Laos’

Hoa told RFA the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuracy are also guilty of letting the People’s Court of Ba Dinh district hear the case of “forging the seal of Laos.”

In this case, board chairman Thai Luong Tri is considered the main defendant. He is from Nghe An province, and a director of the Thai Duong Company, which is based in the province.

Hoa said according to Vietnamese law, the People’s Court of Nghe An province should have been the body to hear Tri’s case.

He added that his clients are completely innocent and said he would maintain his defense in the upcoming appeal session to be held by the People’s Court of Hanoi.

Hoe said he will use the evidence that the Ministry of Security of Laos has an official document confirming Tri and Hai did not use a fake seal for the joint venture.

He said the document, dated May 30, confirms the seal of the Laos-Vietnam Mineral Joint Stock Company, which was used to sign the investment contract between the Lao government and the company in 2008, was made “in accordance with the rules and regulations.”

The translation of the statement is stamped with a consular legalization certificate from the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos.

To verify the information, RFA contacted Chief Judge Nguyen Huu Chinh, the Deputy Chief Procurator of the People’s Procuracy of Ba Dinh District Tran Manh Ha and the Deputy Chief Judge of the People’s Court of Bac Tu Liem district Le Thi Minh Hue, who presided over the trial in February, but none of them answered the phone.

Hoa’s 10-year defense

Over the past 10 years, lawyer Hoa has successfully defended Thai Luong Tri and Duong Minh Hai from charges of “abusing trust to appropriate property” related to the investment of Thai Duong Co. in a mine in Xiangkhouang Province, Laos.

In the first instance court on July 14, 2011, the Hanoi People’s Court convicted Tri and Hai of “abusing trust to appropriate property” and “Forging the seal of Laos” and sentenced Tri to 23 years in prison and Hai to 17 years in prison.

More than two years later, the Supreme People’s Court annulled the first-instance judgment for a re-investigation.

In 2016, Tri and Hai were respectively sentenced to 20 years in prison and 15 years in prison for the two crimes. However, in the second appeal hearing a year later, the Higher People’s Court in Hanoi annulled the second-instance judgment and requested a re-investigation.

In 2019, the Security Investigation Agency of the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam stopped the investigation into the allegations of “abuse of trust to appropriate property” against the two men.

Only the charge of “Forging the seal of Laos” remained and the Supreme People’s Procuracy transferred this case to the People’s Court of Ba Dinh district for trial.

Tri and Hai were detained for a total of eight years and were later released on bail.

The Ba Dinh District Court handed down the same judgement to the two men for “Forging seals and documents of organizations and agencies” which Hoa said made him think that this is a form of legalizing the detention of his two clients.

In 2012, when he was a deputy director of the Internal Affairs Department of the party’s Central Office, Hoa said he discovered wrongdoing in the case of Thai Luong Tri. In December that year he proposed that the Politburo take charge of clarifying his concerns.

Hoa renounced his communist party membership in 2017 “to protest against the leaders of the Central Office and the Central Commission for Internal Affairs for failing to deal with his petition in the Thai Luong Tri case.”