Bangkok, June 20, 2025—Vietnamese authorities must immediately release imprisoned journalist Le Huu Minh Tuan on humanitarian grounds so that he may receive urgent medical treatment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.
Tuan, who was arrested in 2020 and is serving an 11-year sentence for “conducting propaganda against the state” due to his journalism, has suffered from internal hemorrhoids and severe bleeding during bowel movements for the past three weeks, a family representative told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
Tuan told his family in a June 19 phone call that his condition had not improved despite receiving three antibiotic injections, the representative said. The journalist told his family that authorities had not responded to a prison nurse’s diagnosis that he was suffering from issues relating to his colon and rectum.
“Vietnamese journalist Le Huu Minh Tuan has been experiencing serious health problems for several years now, with symptoms similar to colon cancer, according to his family,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Tuan’s pain and suffering during the last five years in prison is Vietnam’s shame and he should be freed now.”
Tuan, a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), has suffered periodically since 2022 from bloody stools, abdominal pain and other gastrointestinal problems, according to his family.
In 2024, Tuan’s health declined with severe weight loss, indigestion, numbness in both calves, chest pain, breathing difficulties, and an inability to eat solid foods, among other ailments, the U.S. Congress Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission reported.
Vietnam was the world’s seventh worst jailer of journalists, with at least 16 behind bars, when CPJ conducted its latest annual prison census on December 1, 2024.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, which oversees the country’s prison system, did not respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.