The press should not report accusations of guilt before a court verdict.

The press's pre-emptive accusation of crimes against perpetrators not only puts pressure on the prosecution agency but also affects the family and relatives of the arrested person.

Editor's note: On November 4, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son presented the Report on the draft Press Law (amended) at the 10th session of the 13th National Assembly. This draft revised Press Law has been supplemented with many new, progressive points, and is consistent with the development practices of the times. One of the new points, which is focused on, is that the prohibited contents have become much more specific, demonstrating humanity, for example: Prohibiting information about relatives and personal relationships in negative cases and incidents when there is no basis to believe that those relatives and relationships are related to the negative case or incident or there is no conclusion from a competent state agency, negatively affecting the private life of citizens, prohibiting reporting that affects the normal development of children....

Clause 2, Article 36 of the draft Press Law (amended) mentions regulations on providing information to the press. It clearly states: For cases that are under investigation, prosecution, and have not yet been tried, the prosecuting agencies have the right not to provide information to the press; the press has the right to provide information based on its own sources of documents but cannot convict; must clearly state that the source of information is the private source of the newspaper or journalist and is legally responsible for the content of the information.

According to Lawyer Nguyen Nguyen Duc Chanh - Director of Duc Chanh Law Company Limited (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association), these regulations are completely appropriate, and press reporting must also comply with the provisions of the law.

Lawyer Nguyen Nguyen Duc Chanh - Director of Duc Chanh Law Firm LLC (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association).

Dear lawyer, the draft revised Press Law mentions a provision that when a case is under investigation, the press has the right to report based on its own sources but cannot convict. What is your opinion on this issue?

Attorney Nguyen Duc Chanh: In my opinion, the provisions in the draft Press Law are in accordance with the law. Because, according to current regulations, only the trial is public, in case of closed trial according to the law, the verdict must be public. As for the remaining investigation, prosecution, and pending trial processes, the prosecuting agencies are not obliged to make information public. Therefore, it is impossible to force the prosecuting agencies to make information public, unless these agencies themselves take the initiative in providing information.

The press has the right to report information from its own sources such as victims, defendants' families, defense attorneys, etc. But it is not allowed to report news in the direction of convicting them. Because according to Clause 1, Article 31 of the 2013 Constitution, it is stipulated that: "A person accused of a crime is considered innocent until proven guilty according to legal procedures and there is a judgment of guilt by a court that has come into legal effect." And according to Article 9 of the 2003 Criminal Procedure Code, it is stipulated that: "No one shall be considered guilty and be punished without a judgment of guilt by a court that has come into legal effect." Therefore, when there is no judgment of guilt by a court that has come into legal effect, it is not allowed to report news that convicts them.

In fact, in recent times, many press agencies have often reported news in a way that falsely accuses the arrested. According to the lawyer, what impact does this have?

Lawyer Nguyen Duc Chanh:Recently, when reporting on murder and robbery cases that attracted public attention, although they were only in the verification and investigation stage, some newspapers published articles with quite sensational "headlines" in the direction of self-attributing and imposing on the suspect or defendant one or several certain crimes, when there was no legally effective court verdict.

Some newspapers implicitly consider those who have been prosecuted and detained by the investigating agency as guilty, and then call them “criminals”. This is not in accordance with the law. The press publishing articles in the direction of convicting not only puts pressure on the prosecuting agency but also affects the personal life and family of the suspect, defendant, and accused.

According to the lawyer, for a new case that has just occurred and the prosecution agency is prosecuting the defendant, how should the press report the news in accordance with the law?

Lawyer Nguyen Duc Chanh:In my opinion, to report news accurately and in accordance with legal regulations, reporters as well as the newspaper's editorial board must know and understand some legal regulations in litigation. On this basis, the reporting will be accurate. Because to distinguish each stage as well as specialized terms in law, especially criminal law, is not simple. Just writing one concept incorrectly can make the understanding very different.

On the other hand, when reporting on the developments of a case without a legally effective court verdict, the press should only take an objective stance and honestly report on the developments of the case, pointing out the actions... and should not conclude any issues. Some words that can be used when reporting are "may be prosecuted", "face charges for his actions", "may be prosecuted"... instead of "the accused will be convicted of...", "the accused will face the death penalty for murder"... This can easily lead to false reporting and violations of the law.

At the same time, the press assigning a crime to a suspect/defendant/accused that is different from the crime that is later declared in the Verdict will cause people to lose confidence in the prosecution agency. This also has negative consequences in society - people will be confused about whether to believe the press or the judgment of the trial agency.

Thank you attorney!

According to Infonet