The imprisonment of Father Nguyen Van Ly

-- Father Phan Van Loi, founder of Tu Do Ngon Luan, on which Father Ly was an editor. After Father Ly's arrest, Father Loi continued producing the magazine though under state surveillance.

"The Vietnamese government’s control of the media and Internet is particularly excessive. There no longer seems to be any limit to the growing hostility it has been displaying towards dissidents since the end of last year."

-- Reporters Without Borders

“Open discussion is dangerous.”

-- Nguyen Duc Binh, ideology chief of Vietnam's Communist Party

"If the United States and other countries truly sympathize with my ill-fated people and truly care about human rights, especially the right to religious freedom, of the Vietnamese people, you must not help the Communist Government prolong its totalitarian rule."

-- Father Ly in written testimony urging the U.S. to nix a trade agreement with Vietnam

• Amnesty International has declared Father Ly a "prisoner of conscience."

  "This sentence means Father Ly will be a prisoner of conscience for the fourth time in two decades," Amnesty International's Deputy Asia Pacific Director Tim Parritt said in a press release after the eight-year sentence was handed down. It is indicative of a broader crackdown on dissent by the Vietnamese authorities that has been intensifying since the country held the APEC meeting last November."

• International PEN released a statement after Father Ly's latest arrest on Feb. 19, 2007, expressing concerns about the priest's health.

• Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., sponsored and pushed through legislation to rally support for Father Ly. Read the text of the resolution.

In the wake of Father Ly's sentence, journalist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was arrested for writing articles critical of the government and charged with “dissemination of propaganda hostile to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”

Vietnam is on Reporters Without Borders' list of 13 Internet enemies, and the press-freedom watchdog calls Nong Duc Manh, secretary-general of the ruling Communist Party, a "predator" of press freedom.