Head of the Central Propaganda Department: Every journalistic work must be a convincing message

Attending the conference were comrade Nguyen Trong Nghia - Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Propaganda Department; Party Central Committee members: Tran Luu Quang - Deputy Prime Minister; Le Quoc Minh - Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, President of the Vietnam Journalists Association; representatives of leaders of ministries, central branches and Ho Chi Minh City, the Vietnam Journalists Association and more than 500 delegates representing more than 25,000 journalist members nationwide attending the conference.

Over the 74 years of its establishment (April 21, 1950 - April 21, 2024), the Vietnam Journalists Association has grown in both quantity and quality. From nearly 300 initial members, the Association has now attracted more than 25,000 members, operating in 63 provincial and municipal journalist associations, 21 inter-associations and 223 affiliated associations nationwide.

Under the leadership and direction of the Party and State, and the support and facilitation of the people, over the years, generations of journalists have always strived to fulfill their responsibilities, build an increasingly strong association, and make worthy contributions to the cause of innovation, construction and protection of the Fatherland.

In the context of difficulties and common challenges of the world, region and country, including unprecedented challenges, the press has always been a vanguard force in effectively propagating the Party and State's policies and guidelines, always closely associated with and accompanying the cause of building and defending the Fatherland.

In addition, information and propaganda work in the press on the implementation of political tasks, economic, social, cultural, defense, security issues, etc. has been given attention, focus, and depth, creating positive spillover effects.

Notably, information on foreign affairs activities of Party and State leaders; Propaganda work to protect the Party's ideological foundation and fight against and refute erroneous and hostile viewpoints; Propaganda on preventing and combating corruption and negativity, and fighting against signs of degradation in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle.

In particular, propaganda on building and developing Vietnamese culture and people is on par with propaganda on economic development in accordance with the direction of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the 2021 National Cultural Conference.

In its direction and management, the Vietnam Journalists Association always closely follows the Party's directives and resolutions and the State's documents on press work; proactively sets out work programs, promptly reports to the Party and State leaders and competent agencies to remove difficulties and obstacles in mechanisms and policies for press activities.

The Association promotes the spirit of solidarity, discipline, innovation, creativity and development. Thanks to that, key and outstanding events in 2023 are successfully and effectively organized; the activities of the Association at all levels are increasingly professional, practical and in-depth.

In 2024, the Vietnam Journalists Association will continue to implement Directive No. 43 of the Party Central Committee Secretariat on "Strengthening the Party's leadership over the activities of the Vietnam Journalists Association in the new situation"; Propagating, disseminating, strengthening inspection and supervision of the implementation of 10 regulations on professional ethics for Vietnamese journalists, Rules for members and journalists when participating in social networks. In particular, strengthening political training, expertise, professional skills and professional ethics.

At the conference, representatives of the journalist associations presented papers assessing in a substantive and objective manner the results achieved in 2023 and reviewing the implementation of the goals and tasks set out in the Resolution of the 11th Congress of the Vietnam Journalists Association; Pointing out the difficulties and challenges from the current practice of press activities and association activities in implementing the national digital transformation strategy; The implementation of the National Press Development and Management Plan to 2025; Proposing solutions to continue innovation to increase the attractiveness, quality and effectiveness of the activities of the Journalists Association.

Speaking at the conference, comrade Nguyen Trong Nghia highly appreciated the results achieved by the Vietnam Journalists Association in 2023, especially emphasizing the effectiveness of professional work, with the success of the National Press Awards, the high-quality journalism support program, a series of seminars, talks, and training courses on digital journalism, media technology, and digital transformation.

In particular, the International Journalism Conference “Digital Newsroom Management: Theory, Practice and Experience in the ASEAN Region” and the National Press Forum in recent days are clear evidence of the efforts and impressive results of the Vietnam Journalists Association and all levels of journalist associations in 2023.

To carry out tasks in the coming time, the Head of the Central Propaganda Department requested that all levels of the association, journalists and members focus on a number of key tasks:

The Vietnam Journalists Association continues to thoroughly grasp, deeply understand and effectively implement Directive No. 43-CT/TW, dated April 8, 2020 of the Secretariat on "Strengthening the Party's leadership over the activities of the Vietnam Journalists Association in the new situation". It is necessary to closely follow the policies, viewpoints, principles, press life, and development trends of modern press and media to build action programs for each year, each month, each quarter of the Vietnam Journalists Association and each level of the association.

Journalists' Associations at all levels need to orient press agencies to closely follow the practical cause of innovation and development of the country, current issues; deeply and vividly reflect the breath and pulse of life to produce many high-quality, objective, truthful, highly combative press works with profound cultural and humanistic values.

Accordingly, each journalistic work must be a convincing message, affecting both the minds and hearts of the public, thereby orienting public opinion, creating social consensus, contributing to strengthening people's trust in the Party, the State, and the cause of national construction and development.

It is necessary to promote innovation and creativity in journalism more strongly and drastically, seek and deploy digital newsroom models with organizational and management methods to strongly promote the creativity of journalists, and at the same time, research and find solutions to limit the shortcomings and risks that cause human and material resources in the journalism industry to be negatively affected by artificial intelligence, robots, digital tools and other advanced technical and technological factors.

The Vietnam Journalists Association needs to urgently develop plans and projects to prepare for organizing activities to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day (June 21, 1925 - June 21, 2025). This is a very important political task of the Vietnam Journalists Association and all levels of the association.

He also noted that the Association needs to focus on inspecting and supervising members to overcome the phenomenon of some association levels and press agencies still violating the law and professional ethics of journalists; must take disciplinary action, revoke press cards, membership cards and expel them from the Vietnam Journalists Association.

It is recommended that the Journalists Association at all levels step up propaganda and dissemination work, strengthen inspection and supervision of the implementation of the 10 Codes of Professional Ethics for Vietnamese Journalists, Rules for members and journalists when participating in social networks; the emulation movement "Building a cultural environment in press agencies"; especially, with the work of managing members who are reporters of resident press agencies.

At the same time, the Association needs to continue to effectively and substantially implement the program to support the creation of high-quality press works; focus on research, exploration and innovation to maintain and affirm the position of the National Press Award. The National Press Award must be the most prestigious and important award of the press nationwide.