General news sites arbitrarily take news and articles from reporters of newspapers operating in Da Nang City to post on their own news sites to attract views and get advertisements.

On the morning of August 31, at a press conference, Mr. Nguyen Dang Truong, Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Communications of Da Nang City, said that although the Department has tried to deal with general news sites in the past, the handling of this issue is still "stuck in place".

Mr. Truong admitted that he could not handle unlicensed websites despite coordinating with many functional units.

According to Mr. Truong, these are news aggregators that arbitrarily take news and articles from reporters of newspapers operating in Da Nang City to post on their own news sites to attract views and get advertisements. These sites do not cite their sources and add a lot of information that distorts the truth. The above incident has made press agencies and reporters in Da Nang extremely indignant.

DaNangZ Page. Photo: LE PHI

“These summary pages are clearly wrong. The Department discovered and received feedback emails from reporters. We coordinated with the authorities but could not handle it. Information on handling is still waiting outside Hanoi and Hanoi announced that it would continue to coordinate. We know that but could not handle it. That is the address but we sent emails but there was no response, and there was no place to go,” said Mr. Truong.

Regarding press activities in the area, the Department of Information and Communications also said that in general, press agencies in the area comply with legal regulations when setting up editorial offices, registering representative offices and sending resident reporters to work. However, about 20% of press agencies still do not comply with regulations on conditions for press activities.

The Department of Information and Communications of Da Nang City also said that in June 2016, the Department coordinated with the City Police to handle a case of impersonating a journalist, discovered and requested the Ministry of Information and Communications to revoke the press card of a journalist for violations in journalistic activities.

Mr. Nguyen Dang Truong added that the Department will tighten the management of 20% of press agencies that have not complied with these press operation conditions. At the same time, a series of measures will be implemented to increase interaction between the Department of Information and Communications and editorial offices in managing representative offices and resident reporters.

According to PLO