A warm heart and a cool head.

(Baonghean) - The press is often considered the "fourth power" after the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. This shows the importance and powerful, far-reaching influence of the press on society. The crucial question is how and for what purpose those who wield this power utilize it.

Some use it as a tool to pursue personal gain, disregarding their social responsibilities, aiming only for personal enrichment and prosperity for themselves and their families. Others use it as a sharp weapon to reform society towards noble goals, bringing democracy, justice, prosperity, and happiness to every individual. This depends on the perspective and perception—the mind and feelings—of each journalist. Therefore, those in the journalistic community often remind each other that journalists need a passionate heart and a cool head.

A heart must always be burning with passion to love humanity, respect and protect what is right; to be indignant at wrongdoings that harm society; to feel pain when someone's happiness, dignity, and legitimate rights are trampled upon. Then, using one's pen, one must write articles that fiercely fight to the end to protect truth, uphold justice, and eliminate wrong thoughts, actions, and deeds of anyone, whether an individual or an organization. But accompanying that passionate heart must be a cool head to remain calm, clear-headed, and thoroughly consider what is right and wrong, and to devise effective methods to combat those wrongdoings and evils. Just as the reporters of Nghe An newspaper handled the recent case of law violations in Nghi Phuong (Nghi Loc).

Faced with the disruptive behavior, disregard for the law, and contempt for human life displayed by extremists, who wouldn't be outraged and want to stand up for a fight to the death? But doing so would only add fuel to the fire, and ultimately, whether Buddhist or Catholic, good or bad, everyone is a citizen of Nghe An. Therefore, there is no question of winning or losing here. It's simply about who is right and who is wrong, who is just and who is unjust. Who is the instigator, the instigator, the one secretly plotting evil? Who is mistaken, who is simply blindly following along? It must be clarified to distinguish right from wrong while maintaining integrity and loyalty. To achieve this, our journalists, despite the danger to their lives (showing their passionate hearts), have used every means possible to gather sufficient witnesses and evidence to directly identify the main culprits. Only after gathering sufficient information did they begin to speak out with a series of highly insightful, reasonable, and combative articles (that is, with a cool head), forcing opportunistic and dissident elements, whether ordinary people or those with high status and education, to "accept and respect" them, creating a strong ripple effect in society. The same applies to the investigation and series of articles reflecting on the land clearance for the expansion project of National Highway 1 passing through Nghe An province.

Reporters approached the issue with a truly "passionate heart and a cool head," contributing to the government's efforts to resolve difficulties and obstacles, fostering high levels of public consensus. Simultaneously, they learned valuable lessons in land clearance work in particular, and in addressing issues closely related to the rights and interests of the people in general, with the fundamental and consistent principle of always prioritizing the interests of the people. This earned them respect from local authorities and relevant agencies, and instilled enthusiasm and trust in the people. These are two concrete and typical examples of journalism with a passionate heart and a cool head.

However, journalists only have one mind, one perspective, and one way of framing issues. In most cases, their minds are clear, their vision insightful, and their approach and reasoning correct. However, not infrequently, a journalist's mind "doesn't quite live up to expectations," and their heart sometimes falters, leading to many unfortunate consequences for society. The consequences of this have been discussed extensively on social forums and in the mass media, so there's no need to repeat them here. What needs to be reiterated here is that to "keep the flame alive" and bring glory to the journalistic profession, to erase the negative social prejudices against journalism such as "writers lying, journalists exaggerating," and to ensure that the press truly serves as "the mouthpiece of the Party and the State, the forum of the people," journalists must constantly hone their professional skills, cultivate their political and ideological awareness, and especially consider journalistic ethics as a true value, a "guiding principle" for their work. This will ensure they possess both "heart" and "vision" in the process of gathering and processing information, creating many excellent works that truthfully reflect life, serving the people, and serving the Fatherland. That is the way to have a passionate heart and a cool head.

Duy Huong