The quickfire arrest in Vietnam of two journalists critical of the government sends a "chilling message" ahead of the ruling Communist party's congress next year, Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday. A leadership transition will take place when the five-yearly congress is held in January, which will see members jostle for influence. A hardline government that took power during the last such meeting has moved swiftly to stamp out dissent and arrest critics, especially those who find an audience on Facebook, which is widely used in the country. Pham Chi Thanh, a 68-year-old pro democracy activist, fiercely critical of the regime on Facebook, was arrested last week in Hanoi on anti-state charges. He is a former editor of state-run radio station Voice of Vietnam. Two days later, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, also 68, was arrested in the capital on similar charges. The former Communist Party member worked for US-funded Radio Free Asia and was vice president of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAV). Their arrests sends a "chilling message" to the public, said Daniel Bastard of Reporters without borders (RSF). It "speaks volumes about the feverishness at the head of the party as it prepares for (the party congress) in six months' time," he said. "We urge Vietnam's commercial partners, including the European Union and the United States, to press for an end to this latest crackdown." Thanh's wife, Nguyen Nghiem, called her husband "a patriot". "He always honors the country... I don't believe he is guilty of anything," she told AFP, soon after his arrest. The detention of the two journalists follows last year's arrest of high-profile reporter Pham Chi Dung, an outspoken former communist party member who went on to found the IJAV. The secretive regime bans all independent media outlets, and is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index. aph/dhc/tom