The most extensive communication campaign on sea and island sovereignty

That is the opinion of Mr. Doan Cong Huynh, Director of the Department of Basic Information, Ministry of Information and Communications about the series of map exhibitions and document displays "Hoang Sa, Truong Sa of Vietnam - Historical and legal evidence" organized by the Ministry of Information and Communications from June 2013 to 2015.

5 big impressions with the community

The closing ceremony of the 2013 - 2015 period of the map exhibition and document display "Hoang Sa, Truong Sa of Vietnam - Historical and legal evidence" was held by the Ministry of Information and Communications on the morning of October 30, 2015, in Hanoi.

As Deputy Head of the Exhibition Organizing Committee, Mr. Doan Cong Huynh announced the Summary Report of the series of exhibitions of maps and documents "Hoang Sa, Truong Sa of Vietnam - Historical and legal evidence".

Specifically, since the first exhibition in Ha Tinh, which opened on June 2, 2013, up to now, after more than 2 years, the Ministry of Information and Communications has organized 41 exhibitions "Hoang Sa - Truong Sa of Vietnam: Historical and legal evidence" in 30 provinces and centrally-run cities, at 2 armed forces units. And especially, there are 9 exhibitions organized at island locations and island districts: Truong Sa Lon, Nam Yet, Sinh Ton and Song Tu Tay islands in Truong Sa archipelago (Khanh Hoa province), Ly Son island (Quang Ngai province), Co To island (Quang Ninh province), Phu Quoc island (Kien Giang province), Phu Quy island (Binh Thuan province), and Con Dao (Ba Ria - Vung Tau province).

Mr. Doan Cong Huynh announced the main features of the exhibition series from 2013 to 2015.

Looking back on the past, we can summarize 5 major milestones that the series of Exhibitions has created and had a great impact on social life.

Firstly, the Exhibition has carried out the most extensive communication campaign ever on sea and island sovereignty.

This extensive communication campaign aims at publicity, public opinion and public law. Publicizing evidence and historical truth to gain public support, speaking out Vietnam's righteous voice to the people and friends of the world, and contributing to preparing legal documents in accordance with international law to serve the long-term legal struggle, and to file a lawsuit in an international court when conditions and opportunities are ripe. The exhibition began in early June 2013, a year later, when the oil rig incident occurred, it further demonstrated that the goal of publicity, public opinion and public law was completely correct and could not be delayed any longer.

Each exhibition on the mainland attracts from half a thousand to more than ten thousand visitors. For example, according to the summary report, Ha Tinh has 12,000 visitors and Ho Chi Minh City has 18,000 visitors. Some provinces that have not been included in the exhibition plan by the Ministry of Information and Communications have also proactively borrowed materials from the organizing unit and were given to organize the exhibition. A typical example is Bac Kan province, which borrowed materials from Thai Nguyen province and successfully organized the exhibition in Bac Kan city in February 2014, at a time before the Haiyang 981 Oil Rig incident.

After each exhibition organized by the Ministry in the locality and the Ministry gives all the documents back to the locality, the locality in turn continues to bring the exhibition to other areas in the districts. The series of events takes place like a relay race, creating far-reaching effects. A typical example is Quang Nam province. The Ministry of Information and Communications organized it in Tam Ky city, with 253 groups of visitors and 8,000 viewers. After that, Quang Nam province continued to organize the exhibition in 3 districts of Thang Binh, Dien Ban, Tien Phuoc, with 251 groups of visitors and 6,000 viewers.

In that relay race, with the past 41 exhibitions, it is estimated that more than 300 thousand people came to see and study directly, serving the media, research, and study. With the plan to continue for the next 2 years, the Exhibition will soon exceed 1 million people directly accessing documents and artifacts from the exhibition.

In the impression book placed at the exhibition, a citizen wrote his own opinion as follows: "Seeing once is believing, only by visiting the exhibition can we clearly understand the reason and sentiment of our ancestors in the process of establishing and exercising sovereignty over the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa, as well as the sea areas of the Fatherland."

Information by visual storytelling through live images from the exhibition is suitable for the general public, has created a special effect, spread far and fast, deeply and strongly impacting perception.

The second is the success of the legal story launch.

Besides the success of a media campaign, the Exhibition also presents to viewers a fairly coherent and systematic legal story surrounding the sovereignty of Hoang Sa, Truong Sa and the East Sea.

We all know that for a long time, the authorities have been building a dossier of Vietnam’s sovereignty over the East Sea, the “red book” of the East Sea. However, we do not know specifically what it is. Because it is still a state secret.

With the exhibition “Hoang Sa, Truong Sa - Historical and legal evidence”, for the first time, viewers approach the legal story in the most basic way. Forming for viewers a legal reference framework through 11 groups of basic documents and artifacts.

Third, the success of the Exhibition is also to display the patriotism, indomitable spirit, responsibility and duty of the Leaders and citizens towards the sacred sea and islands.

The exhibition evokes feelings of patriotism, national sentiment, increases the strength of solidarity and consensus among the people and between the people and the Party and the State, and builds trust among the people. The exhibition is also a place for students to practice extracurricular lessons on the history of sea and island sovereignty, which until now, for unknown reasons, the Ministry of Education has not yet included in history textbooks.

Nguyen Vo Due Nha, class 6/3, Kim Dong Secondary School, Da Nang, wrote in her notebook on January 19, 2014: “Since I was little, I have loved exploring our country’s history. I have known many kings and glorious battles of our country. However, I have not learned about Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. After seeing the artifacts here, I have learned more about the Paracel and Spratly Islands. I have learned that since 1974, China invaded and occupied our Paracel and Spratly Islands, and our people have resolutely fought back.”

Fourth is the result of the effectiveness of State management of communications.

In March 2010, the Prime Minister approved the Project “Promoting propaganda on the management, protection and sustainable development of Vietnam's seas and islands” to implement the Vietnam Sea Strategy to 2020 of the 10th Party Central Committee (This Strategy was approved by the Central Committee in 2007). In December 2012, the Prime Minister issued a directive on strengthening the collection, appraisal, publication and use of documents, maps, publications and rewards for individuals and organizations that have collected and donated documents related to Vietnam's sovereignty over seas and islands.

However, the implementation is still slow. Until the leaders of the Ministry of Information and Communications decisively directed the organization of the Exhibition and when this form of communication was successfully selected, the above documents seemed to be truly empowered to operate in the reality of state management.

The exhibitions are all closely supervised by the media. The information troops are coordinated and supported each other. The grassroots information with this form of direct exhibition is extended and spread by the mass media at each organization.

In addition to fast communication about the timeliness of the event, there is also slow communication to exploit many different angles of the Exhibition: Legal, cultural, environmental, historical... The concepts of fast communication and slow communication were first applied in our country to direct communication for these Exhibitions. It can be said that the power of communication is mobilized in full force for each Exhibition event.

Fifth, the Exhibition is a display of gratitude.

We are grateful to the people who protect the sea, protect the islands, and protect the traditional fishing grounds. We are grateful to the Hoang Sa team that manages the North Sea, and to the Hoang Sa sailors of the Nguyen Dynasty. We are grateful to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the battles to protect the sea and islands through different dynasties. We are grateful to the people today, the people in the country, overseas Vietnamese, and international friends who have spent their efforts and money to collect documents and artifacts, and then donated documents and artifacts so that we can prepare and continue the legal struggle to reclaim our ancestors' sea and islands. We are grateful to the friends around the world who have supported Vietnam in many different ways in the legal battle with China. Among them, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who presented Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung with a map that contributed to determining the sovereignty of Hoang Sa - Truong Sa as belonging to Vietnam since history.

Frankly identify 5 limitations

In addition to the achieved results, the Director of the Department of Basic Information also frankly pointed out 5 limitations in the organization of the map exhibition and document display "Hoang Sa, Truong Sa of Vietnam - Historical and legal evidence".

Firstly, the Exhibition still lacks the breath of reality that is happening, and lacks the contribution of expert channels on the latest developments to increase the attraction of many specialized subjects to research and update in an official manner. Regarding the local side, although there are contributions of documents, they are not really rich.

Second, coordination between functional agencies to update accurate information to serve viewers is still slow. For example, information about Ban Than beach is still different in some documents. The Department of Basic Information has expressed opinions to responsible units, but the explanation is still slow.

Third, slow innovation of exhibition models, slow addition of improvements to visually appealing forms to create new things through exhibitions.

Fourth, it is necessary to overcome the academic nature, and to express it in a more attractive and understandable way. The name of the Exhibition is very good, concise, strong and powerful. However, the language of expression is still flawed in the captions, in the posters (already "exhibition" but also "display", already a map but also "documents", still confusing the captions between islands and rocks, still confusing "ocean" as a concept of international waters with homeland waters - islands are home, oceans are homeland, etc.). It is necessary to increase the automatic commentary on discs to serve individual visitors who come to visit and learn.

And fifth, it is necessary to overcome the limitation of funding for organizing exhibitions. Currently, in many places, after the exhibition, the documents are donated in full to the locality but the frames and display stands are taken back. Many localities hesitantly expressed their intention to the organizing committee and wanted the organizing committee to donate the frames and display stands, but the organizing committee also hesitated and said no, because of lack of funding and lack of conditions to do it for other places.

According to Infonet