Journalist's shirt...

(Baonghean) - Journalists often have a common characteristic in appearance that anyone can easily recognize, which is a specialized shirt with many pockets and many functions that are very convenient for working. I call it the "journalist shirt" as well as the journalist card, two separate "identities". But there are also journalists who do not have a card, but the "journalist shirt" is like a professional certificate. The shirt contains a whole heart of caring for the work of journalism. A difficult job that if not passionate about, it is difficult to go through life. Some journalists are attached to journalism, some consider it a journalism career. And the "journalism village" is very crowded with the love of colleagues and the meaning of fellow students. The two words "journalist" give us a sense of warmth and trust, including the depth of the profession, of the career.

I have been to the museum many times and stood still before the war artifacts. Next to the canteens, backpacks, and hammocks, there were also cameras and especially the bullet-riddled journalist’s shirt, and the pages of manuscripts still smelling of gunpowder.

Looking at the journalist's shirt, I imagined it was the old guard shirt that many generations of fathers and brothers wore when marching to Dien Bien to fight the enemy. The guard shirt crisscrossed the trenches. The shirt was soft but was a magical shield because behind the needle and thread was the heartbeat of Uncle Ho's soldiers, the connection between the rear and the front.

Reporters and collaborators of Nghe An Newspaper working on the Hung Xuan dike (Hung Nguyen). Photo: SM

I always imagine the journalist's uniform as a life jacket for them when they overcome the storms of the open sea to the distant islands to bring readers hot articles and films. The homeland, the mainland, the sea, and the islands are so close and sacred when at the foot of the wave milestone, the young navy soldier confides in the old journalist. The character and the author, two generations, two hair colors when the afternoon sunlight falls, they cast shadows on the smooth sand. The navy bib flutters next to a solid, sturdy shirt, forming a belief, a will, an aspiration. With that life jacket, the journalists have come to their compatriots during the storms and floods of nature.

The simple shirt contains the power of the pen, the pure heart that dares to face evil, which is sometimes more dangerous than the direct bullets of the enemy. The photos and films never have the image of them - the ones who always go directly to the front lines, the hot spots, sometimes sacrificing their lives, but they quietly and humbly retreat behind the pages of the manuscript. And that journalist's shirt is the most beautiful certificate of the physical beauty, the ideal beauty of the soldier on the silent front.

Nguyen Ngoc Phu