Keep the promise "Bright eyes, pure heart"

((Baonghean.vn) - One day in December 2011, we made an appointment to meet him to work at Nhan Dan Newspaper. Arriving at his residential area, we saw him neatly dressed with his familiar black leather briefcase, waiting under the stairs of building 173 Nguyen Ngoc Vu. Over 70 years old. 50 years of experience, the style of a reporter is still intact in him - journalist Nguyen Thanh Phong, senior reporter, former Department Head, Head of the Party Building Department of Nhan Dan Newspaper. Writing about him, I feel helpless before a giant in the journalism world. This article is just a few strokes of a younger journalist, far from him in both age and stature in the profession.

As one of the 9 people present from the first day of Nghe An Newspaper's establishment, the 50th anniversary of the first issue of Nghe An Newspaper is also the day he turns 50 years in journalism. During half a century of writing, he has worked for Nghe An Newspaper for 15 years (from 1961 to 1976) and 28 years for Nhan Dan Newspaper (20 years as Head of the Resident Group of Nhan Dan Newspaper in Nghe An, then Nghe Tinh, 8 years as Deputy Director, then Director, Senior Reporter at the Editorial Department of Nhan Dan Newspaper), 17 years as a full-time reporter for the General Secretary.

Journalist Thanh Phong's career as a journalist also marked 10 years of teaching the press staff of the neighboring country of Laos. For that reason, he was honored to receive the Third Class Labor Medal from the State of the Lao PDR. He retired in 2004. As in his confession in a recent article "Unforgettable Years": "I say I'm retired, but in fact my love for the profession is not retired. Because until now, I am still a special contributor to the Communist Party of Vietnam Electronic Newspaper, a regular contributor to a number of newspapers, magazines and special topics on the Party of Vietnam Television. When asked: "When did you fall in love with the profession?", I immediately answered without thinking: "Since the day I joined Nghe An Newspaper."

A time to remember

In early 1961, saying goodbye to the People's University lecture hall, the young man Nguyen Thanh Phong from the capital city of Hue eagerly shouldered his backpack and returned to Vinh Town of Zone Four (old). At that time, the young reporter Thanh Phong was considered the "young boy" of the newspaper, (because his first colleagues, Le Ngoc Vuong and poet Tra Ngan, were also 20 years older than him), and brought the enthusiasm of youth and a clear, fresh perspective on life to start his career in writing. At that time, Thanh Phong was assigned to read and synthesize information sent by informants, from there transferring it to the radio department or keeping it as news for the newspaper.

As a student in the regionMaleHe was raised by the Party and the State, during the evacuation in many places such as: Hung Dao (Hung Nguyen), Thanh Chuong, Do Luong... wherever he went, he was loved and protected by the people. Also during this time, under the old light box (now donated to the Traditional Room of Nghe An Newspaper on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its establishment), 200 articles were published.

He still remembers the first trip to write about the festival going to the fields at Ba To Cooperative (Hung Thai, Hung Nguyen). From Vinh, it was more than 5km, without any means of transport, so he had to walk and hitchhike to get there. As for the news about the winter-spring crop going to the fields of the commune, he "played" with... 2 pages of paper and felt very proud. The next morning, he submitted it to comrade Phan Huy Chuyen, both happy and nervous waiting for the result. His brother Phan Huy Chuyen carefully edited it in red ink with a gentle but profound comment: "You know how to get the documents, but the presentation is too cumbersome. I'll edit it like this, please read it and see if you agree or not, then tell me again". That was one of the first lessons in his career as a journalist. Travel a lot, write a lot, stumble a lot to know how to stand up, and be more steadfast.

Each issue of the newspaper also marked the steps of maturity in his journalistic career. New fields such as industry, handicrafts, agriculture, military, commerce, transportation... were all mentioned by Thanh Phong's writer with many weighty articles. Once, assigned to write about Trung Kien boat building cooperative (Nghi Thiet, Nghi Loc), he walked and rode a horse-drawn carriage to the facility. When he learned that he had walked all the way there, Mr. Nguyen Than Men, Chairman of the Cooperative, was speechless with a compliment "The journalist is so good at walking" and had a cooperative member take him by bicycle to the editorial office with a package of dried mackerel as a gift. After 2 days, the quick article "Trung Kien splits mountains to establish a boat building workshop" was published.

He grew even more mature thanks to colleagues and brothers like Thep Moi. During his first overseas business trip to the Soviet Union with Thep Moi, Thanh Phong took notes in a notebook but only wrote four articles, while Thep Moi did not take any notes but went home and wrote thirteen articles in a row. He said it was great to have teachers like that! It was Thep Moi who taught the next generation how to be "as steady as a tripod", especially those who worked for party newspapers.

In the book "Long Miles of the Country", there are still many photos of him sitting listening to Uncle Ho telling stories and writing a report at Vinh Mechanical Factory, or a photo on the battlefield of 102 Nui Quyet, recording the scene of him interviewing soldiers of the anti-aircraft artillery unit protecting the city's sky. In particular, he always remembers the heartbreaking moments of grief when he and his comrades dug for each piece of the body of 12 Truong Bon girls who were buried by bombs. Remembering when digging and finding Ms. Thong's hand, opening her palm, still tightly holding the notice to go to secondary school (although she had the notice, she still asked to stay), he and everyone else were silent, heartbroken, wanting to cry out loud in the vast silence. The tears of that time, until now, flowed when he told us. 20 years later, he continued to write the article "Remembering the 12 Truong Bon girls". Because of his enthusiasm, the representative of Nghe An Youth Volunteers agreed to admit him as a witness, contributing to building the image of Truong Bon Youth Volunteers platoon.

The word "heart" remains forever

Talking to us, he did not hide when recalling the incomplete things in his journalistic life. There were times when he wrote wrongly, wrote poorly, did not investigate thoroughly, and presented incorrect examples, although many examples through his articles were awarded the title of hero such as: Ho Thi Luom (Quynh Luu), Nguyen Trong Tuong, Nguyen Huu Tung, Hoang Thi Lien. There was a wrong example that was written because he heard it. In 1964, at the ceremony to commend the "Two Good" emulation movement of the province, a girl came up to tell her story. She loved a man in Xa Doai, later he joined the army and died. Although she was not yet a daughter-in-law in the family, she still volunteered to consider herself as a daughter-in-law in the family and volunteered to help her lover's parents. During that session, she sang the touching song "Anh oi vinam ma di". From that story, he wrote the article "Co dat nguyen nguyen" (Volunteer Bride) published on the front page of the newspaper. However, when re-investigated, this case was not real, the girl had made up the story. He bravely admitted his mistake in writing the article without investigating thoroughly.

In a modest room on the 14th floor of the apartment building at 173 Nguyen Ngoc Vu (Hanoi), he still reserved a room for worship and books, documents, and memorabilia from his life as a journalist.

In his vast archives, he still keeps notebooks of the past. Notebooks that have faded over time. The lines scribbled in the trenches still smelling of gunpowder, in a winter rice field or even while waiting for a bus, all are still full of life. The notebooks that have yellowed with time, having gone through decades of bombs and war, are carefully and solemnly kept by him on the bookshelf.

In many documents of journalist Thanh Phong, we also see a stack of A4-sized notebooks, which are a collection of his articles over the years. He is very passionate about the places that have marked his tireless footsteps, such as in the article: "The man who revived a land" about the "billionaire" forest planter Vo Van Thiem in Ly Thanh (Yen Thanh). Or he strongly exposed the scammers who took more than 16 billion VND from the people of Nghi Thuy and Nghi Tan communes in the nearly 2,500-word investigation article "A scam that made 250 households miserable", and then the article about anti-corruption in Nghe Tinh "Early deployment..." in 1990. He has a whole long section "Articles against negativity", each article has the weight of words, contributing to cleaning up society. But besides that, there are also many articles imbued with thoughts and worries about the homeland, or heavy-hearted for those who have fallen, such as the series of articles about the 12 Truong Bon girls: "Remembering the twelve Truong Bon girls", "About the 12 "living marker" girls in Truong Bon"...

A lifetime, and still not stopping at the age of "A rare human life at seventy years old", what journalist Thanh Phong has contributed to life, with a heart and a lifelong devotion to the Party, is truly a legacy that not everyone has.

Tran Hai