HANOI, Vietnam, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Vietnamese authorities say a journalist imprisoned for writing about corruption in government is one of 15,000 prisoners being released early.
Nguyen Viet Chien, a reporter for the newspaper Thanh Nien, was to be released Saturday in the Lunar New Year amnesty, the BBC reported.
Chien, 56, was arrested last May and sentenced to two years in prison for "abusing freedom and democratic rights" in his coverage of a scandal in which federal transportation officials misused large amounts of public money, the BBC said.
The case drew an international outcry with the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders calling it a "terrible step backwards for investigative journalism in Vietnam."
Vietnamese authorities said Chien was being released early because he had shown "regret and remorse" for his coverage, the BBC reported.
A colleague of Chien's, Nguyen Van Hai, pleaded guilty last October and was given a more lenient sentence of two years of re-education without detention, the BBC reported.
