Reporter arrested for extorting money from illegal construction contractor.

Knowing that Ms. H.'s construction project had violations in the construction field, Hung demanded 20 million VND to keep the article from being published.

On the afternoon of September 21st, the Criminal Investigation Agency of Lien Chieu District Police (Da Nang City) announced that they had served the indictment decision and executed a three-month temporary detention order against Nguyen Manh Hung (from Thanh Chuong District, Nghe An Province), a reporter for the Vietnam Craft Village Times (representative office in Lien Chieu, Da Nang), for the crime of "extortion".

According to the initial investigation, from the beginning of August, while gathering information for an article on "construction order in the city," Hung discovered that Ms. D.T.M.H. (residing in Lien Chieu district) had committed violations in the construction of her building.

Hung at the investigative agency.

Hung obtained Ms. H.'s phone number and proactively contacted her, introducing himself as a journalist and claiming that the construction project had violations, suggesting a meeting to "resolve" the issue. Thinking that journalists had no involvement in construction, Ms. H. refused to meet. A few days later, Ms. H.'s construction project was fined 7.5 million VND by the Lien Chieu District People's Committee for structural violations not conforming to the design plans, and construction was temporarily halted.

Later, Hung contacted Ms. H. again, proposing a meeting to discuss matters that would benefit her. Realizing that failing to comply with Hung's request would result in penalties, Ms. H. agreed and arranged to meet Hung at the newspaper's representative office.

Here, Hung said he had written an article about Ms. H.'s wrongdoing, which would be published soon, and that when the authorities intervened, the construction would be demolished. Ms. H. asked Hung for help, but was asked to pay 10 million VND to keep the article from being published.

However, after discussing it with her husband, Ms. H. disagreed. She filed a complaint against Hung with the police. Afterward, Ms. H. was busy with household chores and did not contact Hung. Then, on August 18th, an article from the Vietnam Craft Village Times appeared online detailing violations in Ms. H.'s construction project. Following this article, the authorities did not intervene to address the violations.

Hung continued to contact Ms. H. to discuss publishing more unfavorable articles and demanded that she pay him 20 million VND to stop the publication. On September 14th, Hung arranged to meet Ms. H. at 7 Nguyen Huu Tho Street (Hai Chau District) to receive the money.

Here, Hung forced Ms. H. to write a receipt for the money, claiming it was a voluntary act to legitimize the receipt. However, as soon as he received the full 20 million VND, the police raided and arrested him. Initially, Hung claimed that receiving the money from Ms. H. was part of an information protection contract. But with concrete evidence, Hung admitted to the incident and made a sincere confession.

According to PLO