Legal Initiatives for Vietnam (LIV) is honoured that our independent Vietnamese-language media outlet, Luật Khoa Magazine, has been shortlisted for the Impact Prize at the 33rd Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Awards.
We are delighted and extend our full congratulations to our colleagues at Luật Khoa Magazine for this international recognition. This nomination stands as a testament to the courageous and essential work of our independent Vietnamese journalists who risk their freedom and lives to report the truth.
The special edition award ceremony, scheduled to be held as part of the RSF Festival, marking the NGO’s 40th anniversary, will take place at La Gaîté Lyrique cultural center in Paris on Nov. 15, 2025.
Luật Khoa is one of the 29 journalists and media outlets from 18 countries to be honored across five categories.
The Impact Prize, for which Luật Khoa is shortlisted, is awarded to deserving journalists or media outlets “whose work has led to concrete improvement in journalistic freedom, independence and pluralism, or to an increase in awareness of these issues.”
Founded in 2014 by a collective of Vietnamese journalists, RSF describes Luật Khoa as one of the “few reliable sources of information about Việt Nam, reaching a large audience through social media and its newsletters…[Luật Khoa] continues to produce rigorous and educational journalism, offering a structured alternative narrative to the Vietnamese Communist Party’s propaganda.”
The nomination also brings renewed attention to the plight of one of our founders, Pham Doan Trang. Trang, herself a winner of the 2019 RSF Press Freedom Prize, was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2020 for allegedly disseminating “propaganda against the state.”
We are deeply grateful for this nomination from Reporters Without Borders and extend our sincere congratulations to the other nominees. We commend and thank them for their resilient and vital work in journalism.