July 2010 - Chapter Four:

Blogging as an alternative media in Vietnam

>>> PDF Download: Blogging as an alternative media in Vietnam [140 KB]

A December 2008 edict from the Ministry of Information requires bloggers to restrict their postings to personal content, and bans postings about politics or issues the government considers state secrets, subversive, or threats to national security and social order. All IP addresses in Vietnam are owned and controlled by state-owned Internet Service Providers.
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“It was like the Wild West. There was like the whole Billy the Kid bloggers being bad and naughty and all that stuff. It was kind of seen as a teen phenomenon,” Ruelle recalled. A teen phenomenon, with two million people in Vietnam all using the same service. “And it was all blogs. It wasn’t Facebook, it wasn’t Twitter, it was all blogs at the same time,” Ruelle said.
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The strategy seem to be effective because Zing Me has become the biggest website in the VNG portfolio. The company employs more than 1,200 people. The average age of the employees is 26. Unlike some of its rivals, Zing has a 30 person editorial team based in Hanoi. They generate 70 per cent of the site’s news – mostly entertainment and feature stories – and they steer clear of politics. But Zing does have moderators and software filters to deal with offensive or politically incorrect content on the blogs.
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>>> PDF Download: Blogging as an alternative media in Vietnam [140 KB]

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