The Vietnam People’s Court of Thoi Lai district has sentenced five journalists to prison for violating Article 331 of the country’s penal code. The journalists are affiliated with the popular Bao Sach (Clean Journalism) Facebook group, and their sentences range from four and a half to two years.

The decision was reported Thursday by VietnamPlus, an affiliate of the state-run news outlet Vietnam News Agency (VNA).  The journalists were allegedly convicted under the charges of “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the interests of the State.” 

VNA reports that the defendants pled guilty to the charges. Stating that:

The articles and video clips posted by the group used unverified, untrue, and one-sided information that intentionally misled public opinions, causing misunderstanding and creating conditions for negative comments, thus inciting people to oppose guidelines of the Party, and policies and laws of the State.

On Friday, the US State Department condemned the court’s decision, saying that the conviction is “the latest in a troubling trend of detentions and convictions of Vietnamese journalists and citizens exercising their rights to freedom of speech.” A similar decision issued in January convicted three other journalists for their criticisms of the state.

Vietnam ranks 175 out of 180 on the 2021 World Press Freedom Index. As part of their sentencing, the five defendants will not be allowed to practice journalism for three years following their release.