On July 2, 2021, police in Vietnam arrested journalist Mai Phan Lợi, founder and director of the non-profit Center for Media in Educating Community (MEC), with lawyer Đặng Đình Bách. The human rights defenders were both executive board members of VNGO-EVFTA Network, established last November 2020 to satisfy the formation of the Domestic Advisory Group (DAG), a civil society component of the EU-VN Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). DAGs allow independent observers such as CSOs to monitor the implementation of the EVFTA, especially in areas such as workers’ rights, land rights, and the environment. The arrest is alleged to be a move to exclude civil society participation to TA negotiations.

In 2019, human rights defender and journalist Phan Chí Dũng was also arrested in connection to his opposition to the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement and his exposure of corruption.