VN photo ban 'protects corrupt traffic cops'
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New rules that require the general public and journalists to ask for permission before photographing or filming traffic police on duty have provoked criticism in Vietnam.
The director of the Ministry of Public Security’s Road-Railway Traffic Police Department, Tran Son Ha, said the rules issued Tuesday help police to fight against those who threaten or protest against traffic police on duty.
There have been reports of people using footage of police accepting bribes to blackmail the officers.
Critics said the new rules prevent journalists and citizens from exposing police who take bribes instead of issuing fines. The regulations would protect police who want to take bribes, prominent journalist Huy Duc wrote on Facebook.
“The Traffic Police Department should have thanked people, journalists taking pictures of traffic police officers violating the law and warned their officers to carry out their duty properly,” he said.
“Asking journalists to ask for permission before filming and taking photos is against the laws of the press,” said Ha Minh Hue, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association.
“The regulation aims at allowing traffic police officers to hide their bribe-taking from traffic violators,” said Nguyen Manh Ha, a truck driver.
Le Hong Son, head of the Department of Examination of Legal Normative Documents under the Ministry of Justice, said his ministry was considering the legitimacy of the regulation and asked the Railway Traffic Police Department to revoke it if was not in line with the law.
Vietnam’s police retained their position as the most corrupt of 12 institutions in the country, according to a survey released last month by Transparency International.
