Beauty queen faces dethronement

Miss Vietnam organizers face penalties for violating contest regulations Ministry inspectors Friday called for reigning Miss Vietnam 2008 Tran Thi Thuy Dung to be stripped of her title because her education level made her ineligible to enter the contest.

Dung, crowned August 31, was in breach of the contest regulations because she had not graduated from high school, according to Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s (MCST) inspectors. Inspectors said the 18-year-old beauty queen from the central Da Nang City should not represent Vietnam at the Miss World 2008 in South Africa in December. Organizers of the contest and Tien Phong Newspaper should be fined for breaking the Miss Vietnam organizing guidelines, the inspectors said. The inspectors said contest organizers had “deliberately changed the requirements on the education level of contestants.” Miss Vietnam 2008’s organizers also failed to submit the necessary documents to MCST’s Department of Performing Arts, the inspectors said. Dung has been accused of faking her high school end of year results to qualify for the beauty contest. Head of the contest’s organizing board, Duong Xuan Nam, has admitted the board contravened MCST regulations by not requesting high school graduation certificates from contestants. Under Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism regulations, only high school graduates are allowed to enter national beauty pageants. Source: TN, Agencies http://www.thanhniennews.com/