CPJ welcomes release of Vietnamese prisoner Nguyen Van Hai.
At least 17 other journalists, most of them online writers, remain in jail in Vietnam, according to CPJ research.
Hai was the co-founder of the Club for Free Journalists, which was established to promote independent journalism. He was first detained in 2007 as a result of his political views. His 12-year prison term began in September 2012, and he later went on hunger strike to protest his solitary confinement.
Hai was honored last November in the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2013 International Press Freedom Awards.
Photo: Committee to Protect Journalists