Strengthening information provision to the press

(Baonghean) -On October 27, 2011, the Prime Minister issued Document No. 7586/VPCP-TH requesting ministries, branches and People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to increase the provision of official information to the press; in particular, it is necessary to increase the use of press releases, online exchanges and online dialogues via the Electronic Information Portal.

This is a very timely and necessary directive document of the Prime Minister. In recent times, besides the agencies that have proactively provided official information to the press to propagate the policies of the Party and the State, reflecting all aspects of social life, there are still many agencies that carry out the work of speaking and coordinating the provision of information to the press in a formal and irregular manner; the heads of state administrative agencies and those appointed as spokespersons have not been proactive, and in some cases have even avoided providing information, especially on issues that are of widespread public interest or need guidance, leading to a situation where they have to passively provide information, explain and correct.

To continue improving the quality and effectiveness of speaking and coordinating the provision of information to the press, the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities to strictly implement the Regulations on speaking and providing information to the press issued together with Decision No. 77/2007/QDTTg dated May 28, 2007 and the Regulations on coordinating the provision of information to the press between the Ministry of Information and Communications and ministries; ministries, branches and localities must increase online exchanges and online dialogues on the Electronic Information Portal. The Prime Minister also noted that ministries, branches and People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities must appoint spokespersons with sufficient responsibility, qualities and skills to synthesize and process information. Press conferences must be held monthly to provide official information in a timely, accurate, and transparent manner (except for confidential information as prescribed by law), creating the most favorable conditions for the press to grasp official information, disseminate it promptly, and report accurately on the media.

The Prime Minister requested that when there is an issue in a ministry, sector or locality that is of public interest or needs guidance, the head, authorized deputy or Spokesperson should proactively provide timely information to the press. At the same time, assign responsible and competent officials to provide full information at the press conference chaired by the Ministry of Information and Communications when requested by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

In Nghe An, after the Government's Decision 77/2007/QD-TTg regulating the speaking, the Provincial People's Committee also issued Decision 99/2007/QD-UB. However, after nearly 4 years of implementation, besides a number of departments, districts and towns strictly complying with the above regulations, proactively providing information to agencies and reporters operating legally, there are still a number of departments, districts and towns registering spokespeople in a perfunctory and perfunctory manner. Specifically, the situation of appointing people who are not in accordance with the regulations, when there is a complex and sensitive event that attracts public attention and requires an official speaking of the authorities, they push, avoid or make things difficult for reporters by introducing, making appointments and transferring requests in a roundabout way. Therefore, following the direction of the Prime Minister, it is recommended that the Nghe An Journalists Association and the Nghe An Department of Information and Communications actively advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue documents to correct the above phenomenon.

Nguyen Hai