Journalist held for bribery

State-controlled media say a Vietnamese journalist who exposed police corruption has been arrested on suspicion of giving a bribe that he then wrote about in his newspaper.

The Thanh Nien newspaper says Hoang Khuong was taken into custody on Monday.

It says Khuong, a reporter for the Tuoi Tre newspaper, posed as a relative of a man whose motorbike had been confiscated for street racing and bribed a police officer US$710 to have it returned.

Police and Tuoi Tre executives were not available for comment yesterday.

Tuoi Tre quoted Khuong as saying he made an error in his attempt to gather evidence for a series of stories about police corruption. He did not say in his article that he provided the bribe.

The series triggered public anger about corruption.