Reforming Party newspapers is an urgent and pressing issue.

Delegates discuss on the sidelines of the Workshop. Photo: Duc Anh

Party newspapers still focus on "redwashing"

Speaking at the discussion session, comrade Tran Thanh Lam - Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department emphasized that the strong development of social networks poses many challenges for press agencies, including Party newspapers. Therefore, innovation and creativity are urgent issues, because it is related to the position and role of Party newspapers in the digital age, the information technology age.

Highlighting the strengths of Party newspapers, comrade Tran Thanh Lam said that Party newspapers are the pioneers in propagating the Party and State's policies and guidelines. Products and publications of Party newspapers are reliable and accurate sources of official information.

In addition, the Party newspaper system has actively participated in the fight against bad, toxic, hostile information, protecting the Party's ideological foundation in the current situation. This is also an issue that the Central Propaganda Department and localities pay special attention to.

Party newspapers also strictly comply with Party and State regulations on political, ideological, information and propaganda work. Along with that, the production, editing and publishing processes ensure the requirements set by society.

Comrade Tran Thanh Lam - Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department spoke at the discussion session. Photo: Duc Anh

However, in the trend of integration and the digital age, Party newspapers are also revealing many limitations that need to be overcome. Many Party newspapers have not yet promoted their pioneering role in information and propaganda. The vanguard role has not been clearly demonstrated. Event information is still slow, does not reflect multi-dimensional issues, still heavily relies on one-way information, is not highly critical, and heavily focuses on "beautifying". Party journalists still follow the old path, are slow to innovate, and have low dissemination; there is still a situation of documentization and reporting of information. This reality makes it difficult to attract readers.

To solve this problem, Party press agencies need to make efforts to innovate and improve both the form and content of their publications. Closely follow the Party and State's orientation on press work, thereby performing well the role of information orientation; improve propaganda work to effectively combat bad and toxic news. Invest in and focus on press facilities and technical infrastructure to keep up with the development trend of society. Continuously train and foster ethics and revolutionary qualities for journalists...

Many difficulties and challenges for local Party newspapers

Delving deeper into the current difficulties of local Party newspapers, participating in the discussion at the Conference, Comrade Ngo Duc Kien - Party Secretary, Editor-in-Chief of Nghe An Newspaper said that Party newspapers are facing many practical challenges.

Comrade Ngo Duc Kien - Editor-in-Chief of Nghe An Newspaper gave a speech at the discussion session. Photo: Duc Anh

Regarding human resources, currently, Party press agencies, including Nghe An Newspaper, are having to carry out a large amount of work. For example, Nghe An Newspaper has published 5 publications for many years: daily newspaper, weekend newspaper, mountainous and ethnic newspaper, electronic newspaper and Nghe An Newspaper's youtube channel. The publications are published daily and weekly, while Nghe An Electronic Newspaper produces and publishes updates every hour and every minute. However, the number of staff and assigned human resources is still small, making it difficult to meet the requirements of the unit. To overcome this problem, Nghe An Newspaper focuses on expanding the system of collaborators and experts in various fields. The newspaper also attracts many famous experts from all over the country.

Delegates participating in the discussion. Photo: Duc Anh

Regarding financial issues, the budget for paying royalties to reporters, collaborators, and experts, in general, Party newspapers are still facing some difficulties, especially the payment commensurate with the intelligence and contributions of important collaborators. For a long time, at Nghe An Newspaper, a work or product of an expert or collaborator has been used and published in many different publications, on that basis, applying mechanisms to ensure reasonable royalties.

For the staff, reporters, editors, technicians: There are some old staff and reporters who find it difficult to change, are afraid of change, and are even skeptical about the innovation that the press agency is carrying out. To overcome this problem, Nghe An Newspaper conducts training and retraining of staff and reporters. For cases that cannot be changed, they are forced to be removed from the chain.

Comrade Le Thi Thu Hong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairwoman of the People's Council of Bac Giang province gave her opinion at the discussion session. Photo: Duc Anh

Reporters' operations: Compared to other press agencies, local Party newspaper reporters are working in a narrow environment, facing many difficulties in accessing information, especially investigative information and cases. The experience in dealing with this issue at Nghe An Newspaper is to build a mechanism and process for coordinating propaganda between the Newspaper and departments, branches, sectors and localities. Along with that, Nghe An Newspaper also implements mechanisms and policies so that reporters are not influenced by personal motives, focusing on accessing, processing and publishing information promptly and accurately.

Comrade Nguyen Trong Nghia - Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Propaganda Department talked with delegates attending the Conference. Photo: Duc Anh

The Editor-in-Chief of Nghe An Newspaper also said that the current mechanisms and policies for the press have not kept up with the innovation of reality. The electronic newspaper system of Party press agencies such as Nghe An Newspaper still faces difficulties and limitations in terms of facilities, technology, and equipment. Electronic newspaper publications of Party press agencies still lack effective software to serve professional work. In addition, ensuring the security of the electronic newspaper production system; difficulties in developing social networking platforms... are also issues that have been raised.

Innovation is a matter of survival for Party press agencies, but reality also shows that in many localities, innovation is still very stagnant. Meanwhile, this is the raw material for press agencies to exploit and propagate. Along with that, leaders of many localities still believe that local Party newspapers only need to report one-way news, not multi-faceted and multi-dimensional news. Local Party newspapers are also "bad-mouthed" and influenced by many reporters and resident collaborators.

Developing Party newspaper publications on social platforms is a practical requirement, meeting the information and communication needs of readers, audiences and listeners. Nghe An Newspaper as well as many other local press agencies have developed and maintained products on platforms such as: Youtube channel, tik tok, fanpage... However, the problem is: How to pay royalties and regimes for reporters, collaborators and experts participating in the production of products and publications on social platforms? Currently, there are no regulations for this content. For a long time, Nghe An Newspaper has had to apply many solutions to overcome this problem.

At the conference, many delegates also participated in discussions related to innovation and creativity to enhance the role and position of local Party newspapers.