Heritage in the Vietnam Press Museum

After more than 1,000 days of construction, collecting artifacts and documents, the Vietnam Press Museum officially opened to visitors on June 19. The museum inauguration event is the highlight in a series of activities to celebrate the 95th anniversary of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day.

Ms. Tran Kim Hoa, Director of the Press Museum, said that the museum has collected over 20,000 artifacts and documents. Of these, over 700 unique and rare artifacts and documents reflecting important events in the history of Vietnamese journalism have been researched, documented, and approved for display.

The museum has 5 exhibition rooms including Vietnamese press from 1865-1925, Vietnamese press from 1925-1945, Vietnamese press from 1945-1954, Vietnamese press from 1954-1975 and finally Vietnamese press from 1975 to present.

The exhibition spaces are arranged on an area of ​​nearly 1,500 m2, fully exploited on different display areas. Some highlights in the exhibition spaces include the lotus pen image in the celebration room, the diamond podium in the 1865-1925 room, the area "Commemorating journalists who sacrificed for the Fatherland and the People, for the cause of Vietnamese journalism"...

Throughout the development process, the press has always accompanied the country's history, is a sharp weapon in the struggle for independence, building and defending the Fatherland, and is an important factor contributing to building Vietnamese people and culture.

Stemming from the idea and passion to preserve, honor and strongly promote that fine tradition of generations of Vietnamese journalists, the Vietnam Journalists Association has completed the Project to build the Vietnam Press Museum.

The project includes 3 component projects: "Museum Display Project", "Artifact and Document Collection Project", "Museum Personnel Recruitment and Training Project". On August 21, 2014, the project was approved by the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister identified it as a "specialized museum managed by the Vietnam Journalists Association" and "added to the Master Plan of the Vietnam museum system until 2020".

On July 28, 2017, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 118/QD-TTg to establish the Vietnam Press Museum. The ceremony to announce the decision and launch the Museum was solemnly held on August 16, 2017.

Journalist Le Quoc Trung, former Director of Vietnam News Agency, consultant to Vietnam Press Museum shared: "The museum displays 95% original artifacts, the rest are restorations. We try to minimize restoration during the collection process.

Original artifacts such as the darkroom of the Vietnam News Agency's Vietnam Photo Newspaper are artifacts of those who worked in the darkroom during the war, before 1975, and have been fully collected. We asked a technician who used to work in the darkroom to help us display them exactly as they were.

However, besides the artifacts that are fortunately preserved, newspaper artifacts are paper and documents, unlike other artifacts, they are very susceptible to rapid deterioration.

To collect original artifacts to display relatively complete historical process of Vietnam's revolutionary press is very difficult. But with the efforts of a collective of museum workers, as well as the press community, today we have relatively complete artifacts from different periods to display, which is extremely valuable."

In addition to original artifacts, the museum fully exploits different display areas; through radio - television - digital technology solutions to best serve the needs of the public coming to the museum.

Along with that, approaching the trend of building modern museums, the Vietnam Press Museum also deploys virtual exhibitions.

The screen systems from the first to the contemporary booths all integrate information, documents, works, and images related to the life of journalism, journalism activities, and contributions of journalism in different periods.

In addition, the museum also has a screen system that will screen 26 films introducing the history of journalism and typical journalists of Vietnam's revolutionary journalism.

Visitors can look up information, documents, works, and images related to journalism.