Nghe An warns and handles 50 electronic news sites

(Baonghean) - Recently, many electronic news sites have been operating without a license, causing many consequences to the information and communication sector. Nghe An Newspaper had an interview with Mr. Nguyen Ba Hao - Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Communication about the current management of electronic news sites.

Interface of tintucnghean.vn website

Reporter: It is known that the Department of Information and Communications has just sent a document requesting the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC) to temporarily suspend the operation of two electronic news sites tintucnghean.vn and ngheannews.vn because they have not been licensed. Can you provide detailed information about this matter?

Mr. Nguyen Ba Hao:Performing the state management function in the area, recently, the Department of Information and Communications discovered a number of general electronic news sites that regularly cited news sources about Nghe An without a license and issued written reminders and corrections, including sites with domain names such as tintucnghean.vn, ngheannews.vn operating but not yet licensed.

On September 16, 2016, the Department of Information and Communications sent Official Dispatch No. 1103/STTTT-QLBCXB to VNNIC requesting to stop the operation of these two sites. On September 21, 2016, VNNIC issued Official Dispatch No. 811/VNNIC on "providing information and temporarily suspending the operation of the domain names tintucnghean.vn and ngheannews.vn". Accordingly, VNNIC has temporarily suspended the operation of the two news aggregator sites with the above domain names, the suspension period is 45 days, starting from 3:00 p.m. on September 22, 2016. At the same time, the Department of Information and Communications also sent an official dispatch to the owners of the above domain names to complete the procedures to be licensed to operate according to regulations (if they want to continue operating).

PV: Currently, the rapid development of electronic news aggregator sites has made it difficult for many readers to distinguish between an official electronic newspaper and an electronic news site. Could you explain more clearly the difference between these two types?

Mr. Nguyen Ba Hao:An electronic newspaper is a type of journalism built in the form of a website and published on the internet platform. An electronic newspaper operates like a printed newspaper with a structure including an editor-in-chief, editorial department, reporters, etc. The license to operate an electronic newspaper is granted to agencies and organizations, not to businesses. Electronic newspapers are entitled to publish content (news, articles) produced by the newspaper or to quote information content from other newspapers (with copyright agreements).

A general news website is not a press agency. General news websites of organizations and enterprises are only allowed to provide general information on politics, economics, culture, and society based on information quoted from official sources of domestic press agencies, or from electronic information pages of Party and State agencies in accordance with the law on press and copyright. General news websites are not allowed to collect, write news, articles, or provide information like press agencies; therefore, they are not allowed to issue letters of introduction with the titles of "Reporter" and "Editor" for staff to work.

PV: So, it is clear that general electronic news sites themselves are not newspapers and do not have the functions of newspapers. However, in reality, some sites still operate as electronic newspapers, violating the Press Law, causing negative effects on readers. How do you evaluate this issue?

Mr. Nguyen Ba Hao:Currently, the operation of general electronic news sites is quite complicated. Recently, the Department of Information and Communications has received feedback from a number of organizations and individuals about some general electronic news sites issuing letters of introduction as reporters to their unit's staff to go to localities to exploit news and articles in the form of advertising contracts; posting recruitment for reporter and editor positions like a press agency.

Some agencies and units set up general electronic news websites but did not apply for a license as prescribed, were granted a domain name that was already active (domain name issued by VNNIC), even circumvented the law by stating on the website that it was running a trial, or did not fully record the information of the unit such as the governing agency, license number; some license pages have expired but have not applied for a re-issue... including some pages of State agencies.

Many electronic news aggregators, when citing news sources, in order to attract readers and serve advertising purposes, only focus on citing sensational news, mainly negative news (murder, robbery, rape cases, sexy images of models, actors...), negative news about the locality, and rarely synthesize good news, so it looks very offensive, causing a bad influence on the psychology of readers. Some sites, when citing, deliberately edit the title, re-edit the content... and consider it as their own product, causing anger to the press agency.

Nghe An students participate in an online contest on the province's electronic information portal. Photo courtesy of Nghe An Newspaper

PV: So is this situation caused by the overload and lack of control of the state press management agency?

Mr. Nguyen Ba Hao: The Department regularly conducts inspection and review of electronic information sites in the area. In 2014, 2015 and the first 9 months of 2016, the Department has reviewed over 400 general electronic news sites registered in Nghe An and issued warnings and handling documents to over 50 general electronic news sites with violations, including some sites of State agencies and sites with subjects residing in other localities.

However, it must also be admitted that, in reality, the work of building legal regulations to serve management in this field is not timely; the state management capacity at times and in some places has not kept up with the development; the effectiveness of propaganda work to raise awareness for individuals, organizations and businesses is not high. Some homepages of non-resident registration in Nghe An province, so the department must coordinate with other localities to remind and handle, which partly reduces and slows down the effectiveness of management work.

PV: So in the coming time, what solutions will the department have to tighten management of the activities of electronic information sites?

Mr. Nguyen Ba Hao:Understanding the causes of the above situation, the Department of Information and Communications has proposed a number of specific solutions. First of all, advising on the issuance of legal documents to serve the management work. Directing press agencies to increase the time to propagate legal regulations to provide information to the people; organizing training for officials, especially grassroots officials on management work in this field to further improve state management capacity, promptly detect, prevent and strictly handle violations according to the law.

In addition, the department will also conduct a comprehensive inspection of electronic information sites in the province and will resolutely and strictly handle sites that deliberately violate or do not comply with legal regulations on the operation of general electronic information sites.

In the long term, in order for the operation of electronic information sites to become more and more systematic and comply with legal regulations, a very important issue is to raise awareness of legal regulations for entities establishing general electronic information sites. Therefore, the Department will continue to open training courses on legal regulations, provide guidance, and answer questions for entities establishing electronic information sites in the area, thereby helping people understand and comply with legal regulations. In addition, relevant documents will be regularly updated on the Department's Electronic Information Portal for people to easily look up and follow.

PV: Thank you for the interview.

Phuong Thao (T/h)