Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Ministry of
Information and Communications to conduct inspections of online websites after
local media sources ran stories featuring websites hosting violent and pornographic
material.
He asked the ministry to strictly punish the
websites, and report their findings to him by December 15.
The ministry’s Department of Broadcasting and
Electronic Information chief, Luu Vu Hai, said that the content of many
websites licensed by the department differed from their original registration
documents.
Hai said that if the department discovered
violations, it would report them to the ministry to mete out punishments.
According to government regulations, websites
publishing ‘untruthful information’ will have their operations curtailed
immediately. If violations contain criminal behavior they will be investigated
and taken to court.
Hai said that the department was unable to
manage websites which it had not licensed.
Nguyen Xuan Phuong, an IT worker, said
policing websites would prove difficult, as individuals could easily establish
a website with whatever content they wished by buying a domain name for around
VND500,000 (US$26) and building the site with downloaded software.
"The number of unlicensed websites is
unaccountable," said Phuong.
