"The economic development of Vietnam cannot be at the price of forgetting the still precarious state of press freedom."
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also urged the leaders attending the APEC summit to pressure Vietnam to liberalize limitations on political and social life, and not just to focus on its economic growth.
"Vietnam's economic progress has rightfully earned the praise of donors," HRW said in a statement this week.
"But APEC delegates shouldn't assume that those gains have translated into greater respect for human rights ... Vietnam's track record on basic human rights remains abysmal," it added.
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