Deputy Minister Truong Minh Tuan refuted the wrong viewpoint on Press Planning.

In response to some information claiming that reducing the number of press agencies when implementing press planning will limit press development, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan has refuted this view.

At the Training Conference on foreign information work and the implementation of the Decree on the management of foreign information activities on the afternoon of November 4, 2015, after a delegate mentioned the story of many conflicting opinions on the implementation of the Press Plan, Deputy Minister Truong Minh Tuan shared: “I know that domestic and foreign social networking sites and hostile forces often distort the National Press Development and Management Plan until 2025 (abbreviated as the Press Plan). I have directly responded to foreign press interviews and dialogued with foreign representative agencies in Vietnam. They believe that Vietnam's Press Plan aims to restrict press activities and strengthen press management.”

Illustration photo. Source: Internet.

However, Deputy Minister Truong Minh Tuan suggested that it is necessary to reconsider the viewpoint on press development.

“It is not true that increasing the number of press agencies is development, and it is not true that eliminating the number of press agencies is development. That is a very mechanical and old-fashioned way of thinking.

We should think about press development in the direction that if we want to develop the press, we must plan and rearrange press agencies. Reduce press agencies with overlapping functions, tasks, and purposes, reduce unnecessary press agencies to increase resources for necessary press agencies, that is development.

For press agencies that need to develop, we must focus on building them better, with a full range of press types and publications, responding promptly to press trends of the times. That is development,” Deputy Minister Truong Minh Tuan emphasized.

“Don’t think of the concept of development in a general way, just increasing the quantity is called development, reducing the quantity is not development. That way of understanding is very one-sided. Our project is a project to plan, develop and manage the press. If you want to develop, you must manage and if you want to manage, you must develop,” Deputy Minister Truong Minh Tuan added.

Deputy Minister Truong Minh Tuan also shared practical stories of working with Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and many other press management agencies on the implementation of the Press Planning: "Before working, they were all very stressed, but after working, they all smiled brightly."

According to the Deputy Minister, "we need to understand and perceive objectively, comprehensively, dialectically, historically, and specifically the concept of development in the story of Press Planning".

According to Infonet