Speech of Comrade Le Quoc Minh at the Conference on Continuing to Implement Directive 11 on Improving the Effectiveness of Propaganda in Party Newspapers and Magazines

Conference scene. Photo: Dak Nong Newspaper

We respectfully introduce the speech of Comrade Le Quoc Minh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, President of the Vietnam Journalists Association at the conference.

- Dear Comrade Nguyen Trong Nghia, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Propaganda Department

-Dear Conference Chairs,

-Dear comrades!

In order to determine the principles and purposes of the Vietnamese revolutionary press, President Ho Chi Minh pointed out: "Our press is not for a small number of readers, but to serve the people, to propagate and explain the Party and Government's guidelines and policies, so it must have a mass character and fighting spirit." In the article “It is necessary to read the Party newspaper”, published in Nhan Dan Newspaper, No. 197, from June 22 to 24, 1954, he emphasized: “The Party newspaper is like a simple, practical and widespread training course. It teaches us what we need to know about propaganda, organization, leadership and work. Every day, it helps improve our political level and work productivity. If we just work without reading or studying the Party newspaper, it is like going blindly at night; we will definitely be confused, stumble and fail. Therefore, cadres inside and outside the Party, all Party members and key cadres, need to read the Party newspaper”. Citing President Ho Chi Minh’s instructions at this Conference to once again affirm the responsibility of the Party’s newspapers and magazines in the Vietnamese revolutionary press system, with the role of a sharp ideological weapon, closely linked to the Party’s revolutionary cause; a bridge between the Party, the State and the people.

Comrade Nguyen Trong Nghia, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Propaganda Department; Comrade Le Quoc Minh, Member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, President of the Vietnam Journalists Association; Comrade Nguyen Van Hieu, Alternate Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee; Comrade Nguyen Ngoc Ha, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Magazine chaired the Conference. Photo: Dak Nong Newspaper

Over the years, the Party's newspapers and magazines have always strived to innovate, constantly improving the quality of both content and form, performing well the role of the Party's political mouthpiece and theory, and the people's forum; promptly disseminating the Party's viewpoints and guidelines, the State's policies and laws, contributing to improving the level and political and ideological awareness of cadres and Party members, improving people's knowledge, enriching the spiritual life of the people; actively fighting against degradation in political ideology, ethics, lifestyle, manifestations of "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" within the Party; fighting against negativity, corruption, and waste; protecting the Party's ideological foundation, refuting erroneous and hostile viewpoints; focusing on theoretical research, summarizing practices, and convincingly explaining issues raised by life; being a reliable source of information verification for readers. Party newspapers and magazines are truly "important documents for Party activities and propaganda work".

Dear comrades!

To better perform the political tasks assigned by the Party and the State, and increasingly better meet the needs of readers, especially in the context of strong development of social media as today, Party newspapers and magazines must continue to promote the requirement of innovating communication methods, effectively implementing the propaganda goal of "correct, accurate, timely, and attractive". Focus on opening special pages and columns, selecting topics of interest to readers, organizing key propaganda campaigns associated with outstanding political events, promptly disseminating viewpoints, guiding ideas, core content in policies and guidelines, analyzing and clarifying new points and basic solutions for effective implementation...

In order to meet the criteria of "attractiveness", newspapers and magazines need to find suitable communication methods, promptly grasp the development trends of modern journalism so that the propaganda work of policies and guidelines is not dry and formulaic but lively, easy to access, easy to remember, easy to understand for the masses. It is necessary to realize that the attractiveness of Party newspapers and magazines first comes from the necessity, orientation, orthodoxy, accuracy, and standards of information. Through reading and pondering works in Party newspapers and magazines, readers can equip themselves with scientific thinking methods and correct perceptions. Therefore, innovating communication methods and increasing the attractiveness of Party newspapers and magazines means strengthening the orientation of public opinion, improving the sharpness in ideological struggle, practicality and theory in each article and publication. To do this, the Party's newspapers and magazines, in the process of innovation, serving the Party and the people, must always be imbued with the teachings of President Ho Chi Minh in the work "Reforming the way of working": "Every thought, every saying, every writing must clearly show the thoughts and aspirations of the masses".

Innovating the communication method for Party newspapers and magazines is therefore also a matter of how to properly resolve the relationship between Party spirit, orientation, orthodoxy, combativeness, predictability, accurate and standard information with attractiveness, professionalism, science and modernity. At the same time, it is necessary to synchronize technological innovation with team innovation, and improve the quality of information. Innovation in the direction of professionalism, modernity, and keeping up with technology must start from people, from innovation in thinking and the ability to receive new things, master technology, and organize information "correctly" and "accurately" to meet the requirements of tasks and the needs of readers. It is necessary to avoid the tendency to rush, to follow the development of new types of journalism, and then to have an incomplete understanding of the importance and specific strengths of traditional types of newspapers and magazines that other information channels cannot replace. This requirement requires Party newspapers and magazines to constantly improve the quality of their journalism team, innovate content and form, have a development strategy towards approaching modern technology; build a team of reporters and editors with strong political will, clear ethics, professional expertise, dynamism, creativity, and the ability to grasp and practice in the digital technology ecosystem.

As a sharp ideological weapon of the Party, Party newspapers and magazines always need the support of Party committees at all levels. Understanding, sharing difficulties, supporting innovations, paying attention to the work of purchasing, reading and following Party newspapers and magazines by Party committees at all levels will help Party newspapers and magazines grow strongly, affirming their core role in Vietnam's revolutionary press, winning over the public, fulfilling their mission as the leading flag in ideological and theoretical work, contributing to consolidating and strengthening unity within the Party, consensus in society and people's trust in the Party and the State.

Comrade Le Quoc Minh speaks at the conference. Photo: Dak Nong Newspaper

Dear comrades!

Along with actively innovating communication methods, strengthening public opinion orientation, and improving the sharpness in ideological and theoretical struggles in the new situation as presented above, it is also necessary to recognize the necessity of buying and reading Party newspapers and magazines according to Directive No. 11-CT/TW dated December 28, 1996 of the 8th Politburo.

In 2020, the Central Propaganda Department chaired and coordinated with relevant agencies to organize a Conference to disseminate Conclusion Notice No. 173-TB/TW dated April 6, 2020 of the Secretariat on continuing to implement Directive No. 11-CT/TW of the 8th Politburo on purchasing and reading Party newspapers and magazines. After 3 years of implementing Conclusion Notice No. 173-TB/TW, the following outstanding results have been achieved:

- Immediately after the issuance of Conclusion Notice No. 173-KL/TW, provincial and municipal Party Committees and central agencies issued documents directing local levels and branches and units to thoroughly grasp and implement the work of purchasing and reading Party newspapers and magazines, and at the same time identified this as one of the important tasks and responsibilities of Party committees and authorities. Thanks to that, many Party committees, Party cells, cadres and Party members have raised their awareness, and the purchase, reading and following of Party newspapers and magazines have gradually become routine. Good models and practices have appeared; many typical and advanced collectives and individuals have been commended and replicated through articles and exchanges of practical experiences in Party newspapers and magazines.

- The work of urging, inspecting and supervising the purchase, reading and use of Party newspapers and magazines has gradually become routine. The Propaganda Department at all levels closely coordinates with provincial and municipal post offices and districts, towns and cities to inspect and urge units to order Party newspapers and magazines; propose solutions to develop commune post offices to expand the distribution network, improve the exploitation process, shorten delivery time, organize customer conferences to innovate and improve the quality of distribution, actively contribute to the purchase, reading and use of Party newspapers and magazines effectively and practically. The work of distributing Party newspapers and magazines in mountainous, remote and isolated areas is increasingly focused on, with many creative and effective ways, harmoniously combining business goals and serving political tasks. Although the number of Party newspaper and magazine purchases has not yet reached the spirit of Conclusion Notice No. 173-KL/TW, in general, in some localities and units, the number of Party newspaper and magazine purchases has increased over the years.

However, there are still some limitations and disadvantages, which are:

- The work of propaganda, guidance, urging, inspection, preliminary and final review of the purchase and reading of Party newspapers and magazines in some localities has not been carried out regularly, thereby pointing out limitations and difficulties and proposing mechanisms and solutions to overcome them. The coordination of relevant agencies and units in advising, guiding and monitoring the implementation of the Directive is sometimes not tight and ineffective.

- The purchase, reading and use of Party newspapers and magazines in some Party cells and Party committees is still a formality. A significant number of Party members in Party cells do not pay due attention to reading and following the Party's newspapers and magazines.

- The content and form of the Party's newspapers and magazines, although improved, are still not really attractive or rich, and the information is still slow, so it has not attracted readers, especially young readers, in the context of information competition between different types of press today, especially on the Internet.

- The budget for purchasing Party newspapers and magazines is still limited, and in some places, it is not used for the right purposes. Some agencies and units, especially business agencies, public service units, and educational institutions, have not strictly implemented the purchase of Party newspapers and magazines as prescribed.

- The work of distributing newspapers and magazines to the grassroots level is sometimes slow, leaving out target audiences; the number of publications has not reached the set target.

Dear comrades!

From the above analysis, I would like to propose some main solutions as follows for the Conference to discuss:

One is,Strengthen the leadership of Party committees at all levels in the work of purchasing and reading Party newspapers and magazines. Party committees at all levels continue to raise awareness among cadres and Party members and the responsibility of Party committees at all levels in purchasing, reading and following Party newspapers and magazines. Review and promptly supplement documents guiding the implementation of purchasing and reading Party newspapers and magazines; be determined to make "Reading and following Party newspapers and magazines" a habit in Party cell activities and the activities of agencies, units and localities. It is necessary to consider purchasing Party newspapers and magazines as a criterion for annually assessing the quality of Party organizations and have timely forms of rewards for localities and units that perform well; at the same time, have forms of handling for Party organizations that do not perform seriously.

Second,Improve the effectiveness of state management of the purchase and reading of Party newspapers and magazines. Review, develop and perfect the system of legal documents, including developing specific mechanisms and policies to support Party newspapers and magazines to improve the quality of content, diversify distribution forms; put Party newspapers and magazines into the list of newspapers and magazines distributed free of charge in border areas, islands, agencies and units working abroad and in particularly difficult areas.

Third,Strengthen innovation, improve and enhance the quality of Party newspapers and magazines in both content and form, creating attraction and appeal to readers; proactively innovate 5 new methods of operation towards streamlining and efficiency; improve financial autonomy and capacity to organize news and article production; build a specific roadmap to promote the application of information technology so that readers and people can access information content through Party electronic newspapers and magazines, thereby enhancing the ability to interact and exchange between press agencies with cadres, party members and people, in line with the current trend of information reception.

Fourth,Use and promote the effective use of Party documents and newspapers provided and ordered. It is necessary to select important, new information related to the political tasks of the locality and unit to disseminate in the Party cell and propagate to cadres, Party members and people; specify the reading, research, management and use of Party newspapers and magazines for the right purpose and effectively; build a movement to read, learn and follow good models, initiatives and practices in Party newspapers and magazines.

Five is,Further improve the quality of press distribution with the motto of harmoniously combining business and serving political tasks; focus on innovating distribution methods to ensure timely distribution to the right target audience; develop solutions to increase the distribution of Party newspapers and magazines to cadres, party members and people, especially to areas far from the center; continue to focus on investing in and building a public postal network with the capacity to complete assigned tasks, specifically on a national scale; promote the application of technology to monitor and manage press distribution services.

Sixth,Strengthen direction and closely inspect the allocation and use of funds for purchasing Party newspapers and magazines; ensure funds are used in accordance with principles and for the right purposes.

Dear comrades!

From the actual implementation of Conclusion Notice No. 173-KL/TW, the Conference Organizing Committee would like to recommend to the Politburo and the Secretariat the following contents:

- Conclusion Notice No. 173-KL/TW has been implemented for 3 years (2020-2022), therefore, it is recommended that the Secretariat assign the Central Propaganda Department to issue a document directing the 3-year review of the implementation of Conclusion Notice No. 173-KT/TW on continuing to implement Directive No. 11-CT/TW.

- Propose that the Government Party Committee direct the inclusion of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Communist Magazine and a number of Party newspapers and magazines in the list of newspapers and magazines distributed free of charge in border areas, islands, agencies and units working abroad and in particularly difficult areas.

- To focus on management and unify funding sources, it is recommended that the Party Central Office soon issue more specific guidance and regulations on funding for purchasing Party newspapers and magazines. In reality, the funding for purchasing and reading Party newspapers and magazines is limited and is included in the Party's operating budget, so implementation is not unified. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly stipulate funding allocation and assign it to a focal unit (provincial or district level) to ensure sufficient quantity. When preparing the annual budget, the Party's newspaper and magazine purchase expenses need to be separated for management and monitoring of implementation, avoiding the misuse of funds as is currently the case in some localities and units./.