Heavy penalties for failure to accurately and verbatim cite official sources in Vietnam

Heavy penalties for failure to accurately and verbatim cite official sources in Vietnam​ (Illustration)

Article 20 of Decree 119/2020/ND-CP stipulates the penalty levels for violations regarding aggregated electronic information websites in Vietnam as follows:

- Fines ranging from VND 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 for any of the following acts:

• Providing information infringing on personal correspondence secrecy or security;
• Operating in ways inconsistent with the license issued for setting up an aggregated electronic information website;
• Providing links to electronic information websites or applications with illegal content;
• Failing to store aggregated information for at least 90 days from the time it is posted on the aggregated electronic information website;
• Failing to provide complete information including the name of the entity managing the electronic information website, the name of the overseeing authority (if any), the name of the person responsible for content management, address, phone number, email address, valid license number, date of issuance, and licensing authority at the footer of the aggregated electronic information website;
• Posting, broadcasting journalistic works, literary, artistic works, publications without the consent of the intellectual property rights holder;
• Failing to promptly remove aggregated information when the source has been removed or at the request of a competent state authority;
• Failing to publish corrections, apologies from the violating press agency for the information that the aggregated electronic information website has cited.

- Fines ranging from VND 20,000,000 to 30,000,000 for any of the following acts:

• Failing to cite verbatim and accurately from official sources as prescribed;
• Providing information promoting outdated customs, superstitions, and mysteries that cause public confusion, negatively affecting social order, safety, and public health;
• Providing information incompatible with Vietnamese culture and traditions;
• Providing information that affects the normal physical and mental development of children;
• Lacking a server in Vietnam that meets the requirements for inspection, storage, information provision as requested by competent state management agencies, and handling customer complaints;
• Failing to implement or improperly implementing public information management procedures.

- Fines ranging from VND 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 for any of the following acts:

• Providing information inciting violence;
• Providing detailed descriptions of crime, horrific accidents, or obscene, depraved actions.

- Fines ranging from VND 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 for any of the following acts:

• Misrepresenting national sovereignty when posting or broadcasting images of the Vietnamese map;
• Providing false information, distorting, or insulting the honor and prestige of organizations, or the dignity and honor of individuals;
• Providing information implying guilt without a legally effective court judgment;
• Posting, broadcasting journalistic works or journalistic content, publications that have been suspended, recalled, confiscated, banned from circulation, removed, or destroyed;
• Providing information outside the scope of the aggregated information permitted on the aggregated electronic information website.

More details are in Decree 119/2020/ND-CP, effective from December 1, 2020.

Le Vy

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