SoCal Vietnamese protest Viet Weekly's pro-communist stance

About 1,000 members of Southern California's Vietnamese community rallied this past weekend against Viet Weekly. From the Orange County Register:

"An estimated 1,000 community members chanted and waved American and former South Vietnam flags, saying they were fed up with articles published in Viet Weekly.

'I don't agree with their work,' Duy Sinh, president of the Association of Vietnamese Press and Media (USA) in Westminster, said through a translator. 'They (the articles) aren't the truth.'

One article published earlier this year 'praised Ho Chi Minh as a savior of the Vietnamese people,' while another article in May justified the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a posting on the blogspot Viet-Am Review.

Le Vu, Viet Weekly's publisher, has previously denied charges that the publication intentionally misrepresents stories or events to present a pro-communist slant."

In an article previewing the protests, the OC Register delved more into the community's disagreements with Viet Weekly:

"...The problem many Vietnamese-Americans have with the Viet Weekly is that their reporting is not fair and balanced, said Jean Libby, a retired history teacher who created her own blogspot titled Viet-Am Review, where she mostly writes about accomplishments of Vietnamese-Americans.

'From what I've seen, Viet Weekly thinks free speech includes lying, fabricating news and defaming individuals who mean a lot to the community,' Libby said.

She said Viet Weekly recently twisted the words of Michael Marine, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, saying that he condoned the actions of the communist government in suppressing the rights of political dissidents such as Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly. The photograph of Ly, whose mouth was covered by a plainclothes officer as he tried to speak in a Vietnam courtroom, was widely circulated in Little Saigon and viewed with disgust by local community members.

But Vu vehemently denies his newspaper concocts news or manipulates audio files, as Libby alleges."