Dr. Le Doan Hop: The press is a storm bird, supporting and making new things affirmed faster.

PV:Hello Dr. Le Doan Hop! Could you please give us some assessments of the upcoming 13th National Party Congress and the development of the country?

Dr. Le Doan Hop: Our Party has gone through 12 Congresses and the upcoming 13th Congress will mark 35 years since the Party initiated the renovation process, and our Party has just celebrated its 90th anniversary. I started my leadership role in the locality when the Party initiated the renovation process, and I still remember the enthusiasm of our people in welcoming the Party's renovation movement 3.5 decades ago. In my opinion, there are 5 breakthroughs in the renovation process that have allowed our country to have what it has today.

Dr. Le Doan Hop - former member of the Party Central Committee, former Minister of Information and Communications, former Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee.

The first, from the point where our Party only had cooperative relations with the few ruling Communist Parties in the world to expanding cooperative relations with ruling parties around the world; we must learn from our friends' ways of governing so that we can govern better. This is a breakthrough thinking that has made our country have extensive foreign relations with 185 countries and territories as good as it is today (including 16 strategic partner countries and 14 comprehensive partner countries).

MondayOur Party respects the coexistence of economic sectors, equal competition and development. Thanks to this viewpoint, we have the vibrant development of household economy, private economy and enterprise economy as it is today.

TuesdayOur Party has put aside all past complexes to declare that nearly 5 million overseas Vietnamese are an inseparable part of the Vietnamese nation, helping overseas Vietnamese confidently return home to invest in developing their homeland and Fatherland.

WednesdayOur Party pays great attention to socialization policies, brightening up the self-investment resources of the people and businesses in the province and the whole country, creating high development steps in all fields of information, culture, sports, economy, politics, spirituality, charity, security and national defense.

ThursdayOur Party pays attention to social security policies that bring morality and humanity closer together, creating power, trust and responsibility for better economic development and social progress.

Pay attention to socialization policies, igniting investment resources of people and businesses in the province and the whole country. Photo: Thanh Cuong

The 13th Congress must review the 5 breakthroughs of the previous Congresses to continue to push them to a higher level. In my opinion, we need to focus on 5 more strong solutions as follows:

The first, applying scientific and technical advances to production management and life more drastically to reduce negativity, because people can only be self-aware to the point of perfection when supported by technical tools to monitor and manage. This is a breakthrough solution thanks to the achievements of industry 4.0 bestowed upon us and humanity.

Monday, removing three bottlenecks of the economy: institutions, science and technology and education and training to bring the country to a period of faster and more synchronous development.

TuesdayThe Party is confident and has taken reasonable steps to shift from the Party's nomination mechanism to the Party's leadership mechanism of examinations (for civil servants) and elections (for leaders), providing enough information for the people to vote to choose the right talents to better serve the Fatherland and the people.

Wednesday, must comprehensively reform the structure, standards, and content of activities of the National Assembly and People's Councils at all levels to be capable of supreme supervision. Directing powerful agencies to serve the people better, and the people to trust higher public agencies.

Thursday, building a cultural life with 3 main pillars: Family culture (Social foundation), Business culture (Economic foundation), Office culture and public ethics (Political foundation). Only when these 3 cultural pillars are well done can the country develop quickly and sustainably.

"The 13th Congress must review the breakthroughs of previous Congresses to continue to push them to greater heights." Illustration photo: Thanh Cuong

Regarding personnel, for the Congress to be successful and come to life, it is necessary to choose a team of personnel who meet three criteria: Virtue, talent and courage.

First of all, virtue must be exemplary, secondly, democratic, thirdly, must have cultural qualities; must understand that culture is the quintessence of morality.

Talent must also have three criteria: First, one must have a long-term vision, the place one is standing is not as important as the direction one is going. Second, one must know how to gather talent. Third, one must have products that are specifically measured for each position of the staff.

Finally, you must have the courage with 3 measures: Dare to think to do breakthrough things to accelerate and develop the country faster in the 4.0 era, then dare to do to bring new and progressive things into life to protect yourself in the future, prove your talent and virtue through practice and finally dare to speak up to support good people and good deeds, dare to speak up to prevent bad people and bad deeds.

PV: For the 13th Congress to be successful, press agencies are needed as shock troops on the propaganda front. Could you please tell us about the role of the press in the current context?

Dr. Le Doan Hop: Any country needs newspapers. To serve 3 purposes:

1. The trend of globalization needs the press to lead the way.

2. The trend of democratization needs the press to take the lead.

3. All ruling parties need the press to lead and govern the country.

"The press is a storm bird, supporting the new, making the new be affirmed in life faster...". Photo: Pham Bang

“The press is the bird that signals the storm”, supporting the new, making the new be affirmed in life faster. The press identifies early new factors, new ways of doing things, new products to honor and support. At the same time, the press also quickly discovers all negative aspects of society to contribute ideas to fight and prevent in time for the progress of each person, the trust of the Party and the prosperity of the country.

PV: So how does the press affect the 13th Party Congress?

Dr. Le Doan Hop:The press must closely follow reality to grasp the pulse and breath of life, understand the signals and aspirations of the people to reflect to the Party and the State to build guidelines, policies and strategies that are in line with the people's aspirations. In short, the press must perform its function as a two-way bridge connecting the Party's responsibility with the people's aspirations better and better.

PV: As a former Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, how do you evaluate the role of the press in general and Nghe An Newspaper in particular in propaganda work and public opinion orientation, especially in the current era of information explosion?

Dr. Le Doan Hop:The role of the press is to proactively link information between sectors on each specific issue, to improve the quality of information and propaganda, and especially to promptly orient issues of public concern at each time.

The press must proactively and promptly orient issues of public concern. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Recognizing social media as a tool that can be easily exploited and manipulated by individuals and organizations to sabotage the achievements of the renovation cause, with Resolution 4 of the Central Committee (term XI), the Party determined the need to rectify information and propaganda activities, emphasizing the rectification and management of information on the Internet, social networks, and personal blogs as an important task. Up to Resolution 4 of the Central Committee (term XII), the Party pointed out the situation: "Not being proactive and lacking appropriate solutions to orient information in the context of deep international integration and strong development of information technology and social networks.

Information management is still loose, lacking strong enough solutions to effectively combat false information and refute the distorted arguments of hostile, reactionary forces, opportunists and political dissidents.

Therefore, Resolution 4 of the Central Committee (12th tenure) identifies our immediate task as: “Strengthening management and rectification of press, publishing, Internet and social network activities. Promoting the role and raising the responsibility of press agencies and press management agencies in the fight against degradation, bureaucracy, corruption, waste, negativity, “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”. Proactively orienting and providing information regularly or suddenly; focusing on propagating the Party’s guidelines and policies, the State’s policies and laws, achievements in the cause of national construction and defense, positive factors, typical examples, good people and good deeds. Timely rewarding collectives and individuals with achievements; strictly handling collectives and individuals who violate regulations on information, press and propaganda”.

After 4 years of the implementation of Resolution 4 of the 12th Central Committee, the work of orienting information in general and social networks in particular has made significant progress. The study and implementation of the Resolution has been carried out in all grassroots Party organizations. The Party's regulations and directives such as Regulation No. 47-QD/TW on "Things that Party members must not do", Directive No. 46-CT/TW on "Preventing the infiltration of harmful cultural products that destroy social morality",... and legal documents such as the Law on Cyber ​​Security, the Law on Network Information Security, the Press Law 2016... are the guiding ideology and legal corridor to solve the problem.

The drafting and consultation to complete the "Code of conduct on social networks for service providers and social network users, towards building a healthy and safe network environment in Vietnam" implemented by the Ministry of Information and Communications has made an important contribution to building a healthy and safe environment for Vietnam in the digital space.

As a Party newspaper agency, it can be affirmed that in recent times, Nghe An Newspaper has taken the initiative in social media, gradually and effectively performed the role of monitoring, timely, honest and comprehensive criticism on the economic, cultural - social, security - defense fronts, becoming the leader and the eldest brother among press agencies in Nghe An. Many articles and topics of the newspaper have high criticism, doing a good job of guiding public opinion in the current era of information explosion.

It can be affirmed that the role of Nghe An Party Newspaper is extremely important in a situation where many press agencies are still slow to take action, the irresponsible attitude of some journalists, the subjectivity of many cadres and party members when using social networks, leading to the situation where fake news, untrue news, toxic news... still have the opportunity to appear, spread, creating a dangerous epidemic with the spirit, causing public confusion, creating suspicion and skepticism towards the Party and the State.

In addition, the situation of some newspapers depending on social media still exists and has not been thoroughly resolved, still showing a lack of political sensitivity, not understanding the nature of the problem, only mentioning and evaluating superficially; even taking advantage of the press to serve impure purposes, posting one-sided and inappropriate information, creating opportunities for bad guys to take advantage...

Nghe An Newspaper has gradually and effectively performed its role of monitoring and timely, honest and comprehensive criticism on the economic, cultural - social, security - defense fronts. Photo: PV

The spiral from the media crisis on social networks with fake news, false information, and unverified information has swept away and disturbed the awareness of many people, including some cadres and party members. Therefore, as the voice of the Party Committee, government and people of Nghe An province, in the coming time, Nghe An Newspaper needs to be more proactive in orienting public opinion, having many sharp articles, many articles commenting, sharply and frankly refuting, fighting against one-sided, wrong, and toxic opinions... to orient information clearly in the context of strong development of social networks, contributing significantly to orienting information, making social networks healthy, so that social networks can promote their effectiveness in life, contributing to stabilizing social order, creating momentum for development.

PV: So, in your opinion, how should the press specifically implement the General Secretary's instructions on personnel selection for the Congress?

Dr. Le Doan Hop:Wherever there are people's opinions, the press needs to step in to clarify right and wrong, those with talent must be honored, and at the same time prevent and repel all negativity; the press contributes to discovering new factors and new ways of doing things to create a trend of high social consensus. Propaganda work also needs to ensure the correct political and ideological orientation, especially for important, complex and sensitive issues of the country to enhance persuasion, mobilization, gathering forces, intelligence and responsibility of cadres, party members and people of all walks of life to contribute high-quality comments to the documents submitted to the 13th National Party Congress.