Lawyer warns Vietnamese American may sue tabloid for libel

>> Vietnamese American accuses tabloid of smearing her with ‘rape’ lies

Pham Thi Thanh Ngoc, who lives in the US, was in tears when she told local media on Wednesday that she had a complaint sent to the office of Nguoi Dua Tin (Informant), a Hanoi-based tabloid under the administration of the Vietnam Association of Jurists.

Ngoc, 40, said in the letter that she was alluded to in the newspaper’s stories as a “nymphomaniac” referred to only as N., who purportedly drugged and raped “hundreds of taxi drivers” at her private home in Hai Duong Province.

The paper even reported that one of the victims was locked in her house for two days and forced to have sex with N. more than 30 times.

Ngoc already requested that Nguoi Dua Tin take down the articles, apologize to her, and compensate her because it had “made up” the stories – published late last month –that “slandered, smeared, and defamed” her.   

But these stories can still be found on the paper’s website at this time.

Ngoc, who arrived in Vietnam on Sunday, warned that she has already filed another complaint to Hai Duong police on Tuesday and proposed they launch an investigation, hold the paper accountable, and prosecute everyone involved.

Luu Vu Anh, one of the two lawyers Ngoc has hired to defend her, said that she returned to Vietnam to seek cooperation from Nguoi Dua Tinto settle the problem.

“Ngoc does not want to make the situation too serious but she hopes to see positive moves from the newspaper,” Anh said. “She is willing to forgive it to some extent under favorable conditions; otherwise she will bring Nguoi Dua Tin to court.”

The lawyer added that the letter of complaint submitted to Hai Duong police is related to libel accusations and the criminal responsibility of the authors of the Nguoi Dua Tin articles.

The paper’s editor-in-chief, Nguyen Tien Thanh, said Thursday that he had received Ngoc’s letter but denied that his newspaper’s articles alluded to the Vietnamese American.

A Nguoi Dua Tin general managing editor abdicated responsibility the day before, saying his newspaper did not “insult or do any damage to her.”

The lawyer Anh has confirmed that Ngoc’s legal advisors have all the reasoning and legalities needed to prove their client is the woman referred to in the articles, which include the photo of a woman with her face blurred out.

Ngoc already insisted that she is indeed the woman from the articles because Nguoi Dua Tin accompanied them with photos, a description, and the address of her villa as well as her personal information.

She said she will go on to submit letters of complaint to the central journalism watchdog and the Vietnam Journalists Association.

Slander can result in seven years in jail, according to her lawyers.