On November 12, the National Assembly held a question-and-answer session on a group of issues in the field of information and communications (ICT).
Delegate Nguyen Dai Thang (Hung Yen Delegation) said that recently, a number of reporters and collaborators who violated the law were arrested and criminally prosecuted, causing public outrage and affecting the honor and reputation of press agencies and genuine journalists.
Delegate Thang asked the Minister to state the causes and solutions to overcome the above situation, ensuring that press activities adhere to principles and purposes, actively contributing to promoting the country's socio-economic development.
Responding to this issue, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that in 2023-2024, 14 to 15 reporters and collaborators were arrested each year. Those in the profession are also heartbroken; compared to 21,000 card-holding journalists and nearly 45,000 journalists, these are the bad apples that spoil the barrel.
According to the Minister, 80% of those arrested were from small magazines, magazines of associations, and social and professional organizations.
The reason is that the governing bodies have lax management of their press agencies as well as the Editor-in-Chief has lax management of reporters.
Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said that currently there are many violations in the magazine, they do not receive support in terms of material conditions as well as economy from the governing agency.
The Ministry of Information and Communications publicly announces the objectives and policies of 880 press agencies on information portals so that anyone, any organization, or any locality can look them up.
When a reporter is sent, check to see if their questions are in line with the principles and purposes. If they are not, you have the right to refuse. If you are pressured, there is a hotline to report.
The Ministry of Information and Communications also delegated more authority to the Departments in inspecting, examining, and supervising magazines to ensure they operate in accordance with their principles and purposes.
According to the Minister, we recently had some new regulations. If a reporter of our press agency is arrested, the Editor-in-Chief must take responsibility and consider the Editor-in-Chief's responsibility.
"Previously, we only dealt with press agencies, but now the new regulation is to directly handle editors-in-chief and reporters who commit violations," the Minister said.
According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, the Vietnam Journalists Association has issued a regulation on professional ethics for journalists. He said that the story of journalistic ethics is still a story that needs attention, because journalism is a very special profession. A voice, a sentence, a word of theirs can influence millions of people or spread to millions of people.
This is a very special profession and therefore the standards must be very special. The current Press Law stipulates that the standards for reporters are not very high. In the upcoming revision of the Press Law, the Minister suggested that the National Assembly consider allowing for raising the standards for reporters.
