Dong Xuan Thu, former editor-in-chief of Vietnam Environment and Urban magazine, has been accused of involvement in 82 cases of property extortion, by the Thai Binh Police, as reported by Dan Tri. He allegedly directed reporters to write negative articles about local businesses, then used those articles as leverage to pressure subjects to pay to have them taken down.
According to investigators, once targets were confronted with damaging articles, they were encouraged to resolve the issue by contributing funds to charity organisations established by the publication.
These funds were then distributed internally among reporters, departments, and representative offices. Police identified 42 defendants in total, including Thu, and said the group extorted VND 5 billion, or approximately US$192,300.
Thu, arrested in Hanoi, is said to have been responsible for the entire amount. His brother has paid VND 500 million or about US$19,230 in compensation during the investigation.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the magazine’s financial activities, noting it earned over VND 76 billion between 2018 and 2024, or about US$2.92 million. A separate case file has been opened to review this.
Of note, it’s not clear what Thu’s defence is and it’s more than likely one will not be mounted in court, in which case, the telling of this story is very much one sided.
That said, it’s not uncommon for news media practitioners to take payments for news stories and as far as ethics go, their appearance in news gathering in Vietnam tends to be limited at best.
See also: Vietnam News Media Laws 2025: Regulations, Censorship & Foreign Media