Temporarily suspend licensing and review general electronic information sites
The Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information said that from November 1, it will temporarily stop granting licenses to establish general electronic information sites and require review and strict handling of sites that violate the law.
Correcting the situation of general news websites illegally copying news and articles
(Baonghean) - Currently in Nghe An province, there is a situation where some general electronic information pages established by businesses have freely copied news and articles from electronic newspapers without permission from these agencies. This is an act of copyright infringement, causing confusion for readers and can lead to many other consequences...
This is one of the main contents in Official Dispatch No. 3825/BTTTT-PTTH&TTDT dated October 29, 2019 signed by Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Hoang Vinh Bao and sent to the Department of Information and Communications of provinces and cities, regarding the rectification of the operation of general electronic information sites, especially to overcome the situation of "newspaperization" of general electronic information sites (general information sites operate as electronic newspapers).
The official dispatch of the Ministry of Information and Communications proposes 6 groups of urgent solutions to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management, and quickly and resolutely rectify the situation of "newspaperization" of general electronic information sites.
 |
| From November 1, 2019, the issuance of licenses to establish general electronic information sites for businesses and press agencies will be temporarily suspended. |
Specifically, from November 1, 2019, the issuance of licenses to establish general electronic information sites for businesses and press agencies will be temporarily suspended to review, rectify, and handle general electronic news sites that violate regulations and amend current legal regulations to suit management practices (currently, the Ministry of Information and Communications is implementing the Government's direction to advise on the drafting of a Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP dated July 15, 2013 and Decree No. 27/2018/ND-CP dated March 1, 2018 of the Government on management, provision, and use of internet services and electronic information).
The Ministry of Information and Communications requests that the Departments of Information and Communications review and count the number of licensed general information websites. If the general information website in operation uses a page name or domain name with words that can be confused with a press agency such as: Newspaper, Magazine, News, News, Times, Online, Daily..., the organization or enterprise that owns the page must change the page name or domain name accordingly. The Department of Information and Communications reports a plan to remedy the above situation and sends it to the Ministry of Information and Communications (Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information) for monitoring.
The Ministry of Information and Communications requires that general information websites must display links to access news and original article links (links) right below the news and articles that the general information websites repost from newspapers.
 |
| The general information website vidan24h.net copied news articles from Nghe An Newspaper. Photo: LN |
The Ministry also requires that general electronic information sites must have a written agreement with the press agency (verbal agreements are not accepted) on allowing the general electronic information site to cite news articles. The agreement document citing the source of information must be submitted to the licensing authority before November 15, 2019. After the above deadline, if any general information site synthesizes news and articles from sources without a written agreement, it must be strictly handled according to regulations.
The Departments of Information and Communications of provinces and centrally-run cities shall not consider granting licenses to general information websites with domain names belonging to other localities, and shall not allow general information websites belonging to localities to aggregate information about other localities. For general information websites that have been licensed to operate in violation of this provision, the organizations and enterprises that own the websites must be required to amend and supplement their licenses accordingly.
The Ministry of Information and Communications requires strengthening the review, inspection and rectification of the activities of organizations and enterprises establishing general electronic information sites with headquarters in the locality; strictly handling violations according to the provisions of the law, especially acts of operation that are not in accordance with the principles, purposes and contents of the granted license, acts of taking advantage of general electronic information sites to operate as electronic newspapers, electronic magazines, acts of providing sensational, clickbait information, violating copyright and provisions of the law on intellectual property.
It is expected that the state management agency of the Ministry of Information and Communications will also issue a document requiring press agencies to have a written agreement (not accepting oral agreements) on allowing general electronic information sites to quote news articles, which must clearly state: Only allow citing the source of information after at least 3 hours from the time the original news or article is published in the press. The document on the source of information agreement must be sent to the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information or the Department of Information and Communications of the city for monitoring and supervision.
On October 8, 2019, Nghe An Newspaper sent Official Dispatch No. 328/CV.BNA to the Ministry of Information and Communications; Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information; Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department; Nghe An Department of Information and Communications, Nghe An Provincial Police regarding the fact that the general electronic information pages with domain names: http://tintucnghean.vn; http://canhsat4sao.vn/; https://xunghe24h.com; https://vidan24h.net/ and Business and Brand Magazine http://doanhnghiepthuonghieu.vn, copied and quoted some news and articles from Nghe An Electronic Newspaper (baonghean.vn) without written permission from Nghe An Newspaper.
Nghe An Newspaper has requested the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information, the Propaganda Department of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, the Department of Information and Communications of Nghe An, and the Nghe An Provincial Police to take measures to strictly handle the violations of the above-mentioned electronic information pages and magazines.
Nghe An Newspaper also sent an Official Dispatch requesting information sites and electronic magazines to immediately stop copying, quoting and removing news and articles that have been copied and posted without the consent of Nghe An Newspaper.
