Vicious lies and slander

A prime example of this tactic has been seen in recent coverage of the Vietnamese prime minister’s visit to Germany by thoibao.de, which describes itself as a “magazine of the Vietnamese community in Germany”.

While many Vietnamese people in Germany were excited about Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visit to Hamburg to attend the G20 Summit as host of the APEC Summit 2017, thoibao.de intentionally carried reports aimed at playing down the significance of the Vietnamese government leader’s visit.

The online magazine thoibao.de recently fabricated a story that the German chancellor would not meet PM Phuc due to human rights abuses.

Afterwards, although the German chancellor did indeed hold talks with PM Phuc, thoibao.de decided not to remove its previous article and even went as far as publishing a new one stating that journalists must speak and write the “truth”.

The online site also stated that the German press barely mentioned the Vietnamese PM’s visit even though the website of Rhineland-Palatinate state carried a report on the visit with photos of Minister President Malu Dreyer welcoming PM Phuc as well as other information on Vietnam-Germany economic cooperation.

The websites of Hamburg and Hesse also posted press releases on PM Phuc’s visit.

Concerning PM Phuc’s attendance at the G20 Summit, Neues Deutschland (New Germany), a German newspaper, ran an article stating that although Vietnam is not a member of G20, the Vietnamese PM arrived in Hamburg as his country is host of the APEC Summit 2017. Therefore, his attendance affirms Vietnam’s reputation on the international stage. The article also provided readers with much information about Vietnam’s economic development.

Such inaccurate reports indicate that thoibao.de, in the name of a “magazine of the Vietnamese community in Germany”, provided dishonest media coverage, hoping that language differences and difficulties in determining news sources would help them to deceive readers and discredit Vietnam.

However, in the age of electronic information, where every fact can be verified, their effort only reveals their sinister plots. Fortunately, no matter how much they try to deceive readers, it will be unable to create even a minimal impact on Vietnam’s reputation in regards to international relations.