Beware of the rhetoric of Reporters Without Borders

Accordingly, countries such as China, Vietnam, North Korea, Russia, Iran, Syria… continue to be ranked at the bottom of the rankings. This seems obvious because RSF is a non-governmental organization that always has a prejudiced view of countries that are not pro-American and Western.

The rankings are stereotypical and impractical.

Accordingly, RSF ranked Vietnam as continuing to be in the bottom group and is "currently in the group of countries that need to raise the level of warning on the situation of press freedom". RSF also recommended that countries should request Vietnam to have a roadmap to improve the situation of "religious freedom" as a mandatory condition if they want to participate or participate deeply in the areas where we have needs and strengths.

However, the comments made by RSF are completely one-sided, generalized, and unrealistic. This organization has not provided any authentic evidence to match the criteria they have put forward. They are still baseless accusations like many years ago. Those who are approached to publish information are usually just a group of people who have disagreements with the host country about the viewpoints and direction of press activities or have been arrested and prosecuted for related violations. That is also the reason why RSF's annual press releases attract little attention and are considered "rehashed old stories", aiming to attack and bring down certain politicians, not to provide objective and honest indicators. All are just data that are speculative, conjectural, and misleading.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2023 rankings map.

Meanwhile, the appearance and practice of press life and press freedom in Vietnam are reflecting remarkable progress. Vietnam has been participating in and seriously implementing its commitments on freedom of speech and press freedom according to the United Nations Charter and related international and regional treaties and conventions on that basis.

Vietnam has been proactive, creative and responsible in concretizing freedom of speech in general andfreedom of the pressin particular by legal documents. Article 25 of the 2013 Constitution stipulates: “Citizens have the right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, access to information, assembly, association, and demonstration. The exercise of these rights is prescribed by law.” In Vietnam, the press is an essential means of information for social life; it is the mouthpiece of Party agencies, State agencies, socio-political organizations, socio-political-professional organizations, social organizations, socio-professional organizations; it is a forum for the people. Our Party and State always create favorable conditions for freedom of the press to be exercised in accordance with the provisions of law.

In fact, only in Vietnam, all people are free to participate in social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok... without any hindrance. Each person has access to multi-dimensional information sources and objectively expresses their opinions on media platforms. Taking advantage of this "freedom", many individuals have posted and posted false information on social networks, causing confusion among the public and the masses. Among them, there are those who harm national security and social order and safety, violating Vietnamese law. Such cases must be fought and handled according to the law.

Unlike many other countries, Vietnamese people are not restricted when participating in social networks.

Be vigilant to avoid being taken advantage of

In fact, RSF and many other “democratic” and “human rights” organizations are all “peripheral organizations” of the US and the West with the purpose of stirring up the politics of countries around the world, including Vietnam. These organizations consider themselves the voice of the world, to evaluate and “depose” countries that are not Western or have opposing ideological tendencies.

Through the annual “rankings”, hostile forces thoroughly use the trick of “internal attack, external attack”. On the one hand, they select, train, and support domestic “democracy merchants” to conduct activities attacking the Party, the State, and government agencies under the guise of “freelance journalists” and “freelance reporters”. On the other hand, external forces often trumpet the absoluteness of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.over-incite democratic values“human rights are higher than sovereignty” and at the same time, exert pressure, release reports, statements, and rankings with false content about the situation of press freedom in Vietnam; slander the Party and State of Vietnam, claiming that Vietnam has no press freedom, no freedom of speech.

The distortion of the situation of democracy and human rights in Vietnam in general and the implementation of freedom of the press and freedom of speech in particular is not new. This is an old scenario often carried out by individuals and opposing organizations. By accusing Vietnam of not having freedom of speech and freedom of the press, hostile forces have sought to interfere in Vietnam's internal affairs. In essence, this is a trick in the ideological war that hostile forces thoroughly exploit, especially in the context of the information explosion.

Journalists at work. Illustration photo: Document

Currently, many foreign newspapers and radio stations that oppose Vietnam are still operating. At the same time, many hostile organizations and individuals have also created thousands of websites to spread false and harmful information. Every day, there are hundreds of articles, images, and video clips that distort, falsify, and defame the economic, political, and social situation in Vietnam. In particular, recently, forces have used artificial intelligence to "create" distorted articles and images; then, thoroughly exploiting associations and groups on social networks to spread bad and toxic information. This is a very dangerous trick that authorities need to take measures to prevent and people need to raise their vigilance.

Faced with that reality, each cadre and party member needs to clearly identify the plots and tricks of sabotage in order to propagate and explain to relatives and the people the nature of the matter. From there, form the habit of selecting and analyzing each time receiving information so as not to be exploited and become a "loudspeaker" of hostile forces./.