Submitted by Fox First at Ten on September 28th
By CHRIS BRUMMITTAssociated Press
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - The 7-iron resting against the wall in Le Quoc Quan's office is for self-defense. The blogger has not left home without it since being beaten by iron-bar-wielding men he suspects were sent by police.
If the assault was meant to silence him, it failed. He was soon back online, reporting the incident.
The Internet has become the principal staging ground for dissent in Vietnam, and its Communist rulers are trying to clamp down with new laws, more arrests and longer prison sentences. But it's a battle they are losing.
Experts say Hanoi lacks the money and know-how to comprehensively censor content like its neighbor China. Vietnam is also undergoing a sharp economic downturn, and the more it restricts the Internet, the more it diminishes an engine of growth.
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