"Vietnamese blogger who filmed chemical spill protests released from prison", 11 January 2024

A Vietnamese journalist and prisoner-of-conscience serving a seven-year sentence was released from prison on Thursday and has already returned to central Ha Tinh province for a homecoming celebration with family and friends.

Nguyen Van Hoa, 28, regularly contributed to Radio Free Asia as a blogger and video producer prior to his January 2017 arrest on “abusing democratic freedoms” charges.

Authorities detained him just after he filmed protests outside the Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group steel plant. A 2016 spill at the facility polluted more than 125 miles of coastline, killed an estimated 115 tons of fish, and left tourism industry workers and fishermen jobless in four central provinces.

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