SaigonNezumi.com

Well, for those of us who live and work in Vietnam, we are now required to get our work permits.  The process is much easier now but for me, it is taking a bit longer than expected.

Today, my local ward police signed two documents stating that I lived in my house over 6 months.  I will need this form before the Judiciary Department would start my criminal background check.  Normally you needed to provide copies of your housebook but we were told to get this documents as well so it could speed up the background check process.

Getting the necessary documents from my ward police was not easy.  Since they never processed this request before, they asked us to create the document ourselves.  Our first document, submitted by my landlord, was not approved.  With their help, I edited the form, with the help of my Vietnamese IT students, with their inputs and submitted this form to the ward police yesterday afternoon.  Before they would sign it, though, they wanted me to submit to them a labor contract from my company.  I provided this today and they signed and stamped my document.  It will be submitted with my criminal background check application by the end of this week.

In retrospect, if I had the original housebook, the process would have gone faster but the landlord, mistakenly, took it home with him.  My landlord also provided another form which was supposed to convince the ward police to sign the documents.  They just made a copy of it and gave me the original.

I did not pay a thing for these documents.  The ward police were very helpful to me.  I gave about one and a half hours of my time but if I had the housebook and my labor contract, it could have been completed in 30 minutes.

Now to get my criminal background check.  Next week I will get my health check.  When my criminal background check is complete, all the paperwork will be submitted in roughly 1-2 weeks.  A service I am using will get my university degrees notarized in Vietnam since I actually have the originals here.  The whole procedure should be completed in 2 months.

The process is not painful, yes a bit of a hassle, but still doable.  Anyway, I have no choice if I want to remain and work in Vietnam.

Yesterday the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) released a circular to regulate and enforce blogging rules in Vietnam.

According to Thanh Nien News, the circular states that bloggers will be held responsible for providing, disseminating, and creating direct links that are in direct violation of the decree issued last August that “…forbids the circulation of information which undermines Vietnam’s national security and social order, revealing classified information, or instigating war and violence.”

Pornography, superstitious content such as astrology, and defamatory content are also banned.  These are social evils in Vietnam.

Bloggers cannot create blogs assuming other identities.  That means the Fake Steve Jobs blogger would be in violation in Vietnam.

Furthermore, bloggers cannot post copyrighted material and they will also be held responsible for ALL the content of their blogs.  Service providers (those that host blogs) “…must detect, prevent and get rid of banned information when asked by governmental blog management agencies, it notes” according to Thanh Nien News.

The questions not answered are whether Expat bloggers and Vietnamese who have blog accounts outside of Vietnam are affected.  A report posted by Tuoi Tre today seems to state that if an overseas blog posted by a blogger in Vietnam violates the August decree, they may be held in criminal violation.  I will need to confirm this since I was reading a translated version of the story with Google Translator.

Despite this circular, many bloggers seem not really worried about the regulation of blogs.  There are just too many blogs, especially with Yahoo 360, that will make enforcing the circular too difficult.  Also, since many bloggers are teenagers who have a tendency to speak their mind, restricting this young group could turn into an headache for the MIC.

With the growing popularity of Facebook and Twitter in Vietnam now, will these two service providers, as defined by the circular, be responsible to manage the information on their sites as well?

Read more about the new blog circular here -> Circular aims to tackle blogging violations

Vietnamese version here -> Tuoi Tre

Update:

VietnamNet Bridge just posted an article about the blog circular: Vietnam to have circular on Internet-based information violations

AP published Vietnam imposes new blogging restrictions as well.  As with Reuters, AP seems to be paraphrasing the Vietnamese English language news sites.  No fact finding as well.

Related Posts on the Regulation of Blogs in Vietnam

• Blogging Boom Faces Gov’t Blockages (Helen Clark – IPS News)
• Are Expat Bloggers in Vietnam affected by the Draft Blog Resolution?
• Vietnamese Govt Watchdog to Regulate Blogs

Helen Clark published her article in relation to the new blogging regulation for Vietnam last Friday.  Originally, the blogging regulation was supposed to include all bloggers but has since focused just on bloggers who host blogs within Vietnam.

Anh Hung (Fresco 2.0), Chris Harvey (charvey in Vietnam), and I were interviewed by Helen Clark via telephone.   This will be Anh Hung’s second interview.  Over a week ago, he appeared in Geoffrey Caines’ SFGate article, Bloggers the new rebels in Vietnam.

It will be interesting to see how the law will be implemented next year.  What about blogs not affected by the new Blog Law, will they just be filtered out?  As we have seen with Geocities for many years, the Vietnamese government has the capability to filter out websites.  It will be relatively easy to filter out ‘controversial’ blogs as well.  We will just have to wait and see but as I told two other reporters, I think the Western media are a bigger threat to Vietnam bloggers than the new blog law

Excerpt of Helen Clark’s article:

Though blogging regulations have been discussed before the issue again came to prominence in November, with reports running in local media that the Ministry of Information and Communications was planning a law which would counteract “incorrect information” about Vietnam.

Read more here -> http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45171

or here -> http://www.google.com/search?&q=Blogging+Boom+Faces+Gov%27t+Blockages+Helen+Clark

Oh yeah, one little mistake.  Helen mentioned that I ran Barcamp Saigon.  Actually, I just formed it and helped obtain the venue though my network.  The Barcamp Saigon organizers ran the event.  Want to make sure they get the credit here, not me

Other Press Reports on the Blog Regulation

Edit 1:

Reuters published their report on the blogging regulation.  A bit more negative in tone than Helen Clark’s article.  John Ruwitch seemed to just quote online news sources without checking out the facts.  As I mentioned earlier, nobody seems concerned about the new blog regulation except the Western media.  They are blowing this out of proportion.

Read article here -> Vietnam Bans Submersive Blogs

Just read this online at Thanh Nien News.  The traffic police in Saigon will not be allowed to fine Expats and Viet Kieu for violating the traffic rules.  Fines will be issued at the scene with the aid of video recorders.

Take note though, ‘violators’ should pay the fine AT the office later, not to the traffic policeman.  Fines for not wearing a proper helmet or running a red light runs about 100,000-200,000 VND.  Speeding ranges from 200,000-800,000 VND.  Oh, if you do not have a driver’s license in Vietnam, you will get another fine most likely.  I will work on mine when I get my temporary residence permit hopefully next month.  The process is easier now.

My advice, just follow the laws.  Remember that you should ride on the right lane at ALL times.  I got fined two years ago for riding in the left lane.  I paid 40,000 VND at that time.  I have not had a fine since then.

Some may ask if the traffic police will now pull you over if they noticed you are a foreigner?  If they do and you feel that you did not violate any traffic law then fight it.  That’s what the Vietnamese do but remember, if you do not have a motorbike license, you are violating the law.

This could be a blow to the tourist areas since many tourists rent motorbikes with little or no experience riding them.

For me, I will follow the rules.  Things are changing in Vietnam rapidly.  Next year all Foreigners working in Vietnam will be required to obtain Tax IDs and obtain work permits.  This was much needed and finally will eliminate the discriminatory income tax regulations.

Read more about the new traffic regulation of foreigners here -> http://thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=44618

Update: Thanh Nien News posted an update to their story today.  HCMC Traffic Police Deputy Chief Lieutenant-Colonel Tran Thanh Tra was reported saying that ‘Fluent’ English traffic police deputies will be dispatched when an Expat ‘offender’ is stopped for a traffic violation.  Easier said than done so I guess the traffic policeman who stops an Expat traffic offender in say, the Thu Duc District, will not mind waiting for an English speaking deputy.  We just will have to wait and see what happens.

The general feeling among Expats is that even though the new rule is fair, many of the traffic police will abuse it and just pull over Expats for money.  I am not generalizing, the traffic police have that reputation here in Saigon.  Notice the high number of expensive motorbikes that are repeatedly pulled over by the traffic police.  The police CAN now take your motorbike as well.  Previously they could not.

Tourists are fair game as well according to the ruling and I personally think they will be most affected by it.

Time to think about switching to an electric bike or plain ole bicycle.