3 key factors that contribute to the quality of the Association's activities

The three factors that journalist Nguyen Anh Tu mentioned are: Firstly, full-time Association officials must be willing to take risks and uphold their responsibility to the Association; secondly, members must actively support and participate in the Association's work; and thirdly, there is a great need for attention from local leaders, leaders of the Vietnam Journalists Association , and ministries, departments, and agencies at the central level…

Those working in associations must dedicate a significant amount of time to "get down to business."

Analyzing the three factors that contribute to the quality of the Association's work in more detail, journalist Nguyen Anh Tu shared that firstly, the aspect of full-time Association officials is extremely important. In the current context, it is very difficult to recruit personnel to participate in Association work, and many people are hesitant to join full-time Association work because the income is not attractive. If they are still of working age, besides their monthly salary, Association officials do not receive any other remuneration. For those who have retired but still participate in full-time Association work, they receive a small allowance from the local Journalists Association, making the choice to participate in Association work very difficult for many. In addition, full-time Association officials require outstanding qualities such as: the ability to unite members, leadership and guidance skills for the Association's activities, and especially the courage to commit and uphold responsibility for Association work.

The Hai Phong Journalists Association was honored to receive a Certificate of Commendation from the Chairman of the Hai Phong City People's Committee for its achievements in studying and following the ideology, ethics, and style of Ho Chi Minh on May 11, 2023.

“To create a movement, those working for the Association must dedicate a lot of time to ‘get involved,’ be willing to sacrifice many personal and family responsibilities, and even use personal connections to mobilize resources to serve the Association’s work. Every spring and autumn, local Journalists’ Associations participate in many cultural, sports , and social activities and movements in their localities, participate in journalism competitions launched by the central and local authorities, organize professional training courses, seminars, and workshops, combining them with creative writing and social and charitable activities. In addition, they must also dedicate a lot of time to handling paperwork, while the staffing at local Journalists’ Associations is very limited. Those working for the Association must clearly understand this, and be willing to give their all to feel secure in participating in the Association’s work…” – the Standing Vice Chairman of the Hai Phong City Journalists Association emphasized.

Currently, the Hai Phong City Journalists Association has only two salaried positions funded by the state budget, while it has 400 members working at various media outlets in the city, not to mention nearly 100 members who are reporters from 48 central and provincial media agencies with representative offices and resident reporters in Hai Phong. “The Hai Phong City Journalists Association is a socio-political organization; we receive numerous directives from the city and central government daily. Therefore, to fulfill our duties, we must make every effort,” Mr. Tu stated.

In this matter, journalist Anh Tú also frankly and specifically shared his work at the Hai Phong City Journalists Association. With limited personnel, the Association's leadership must, on the one hand, uphold unity and cohesion within the Standing Committee, Executive Committee, and the staff of the Association's Office, strictly adhering to the Executive Committee's operational regulations and the Association's working regulations, and effectively fulfilling assigned tasks for each staff member. Whenever there is an urgent or important matter, the Standing Committee directly discusses it, then seeks the opinions of the Executive Committee members before issuing documents or implementing tasks, ensuring democracy and high consensus throughout the Association… On the other hand, full-time Association staff need to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to their assigned work, not shying away from difficulties or hardships, and knowing how to flexibly utilize relationships to organize activities for members…

Responsibility from members and attention from leadership.

Based on years of practical experience, journalist Anh Tú believes that the second factor in improving the quality of the Association's activities is the self-awareness, sense of responsibility, and enthusiastic support of the Association's movements and activities among its members. Mr. Tú also expressed concern that this is a crucial but difficult element to implement, as most journalist members are reporters for media outlets, and they prioritize their professional work before dedicating time to the Association's activities. Naturally, the challenge is that without the support of members from media organizations, the local Journalists' Association will struggle to fulfill its mission! Organizing journalism competitions and cultural, social, and sports activities without participation is considered a failure. Meanwhile, the income and livelihoods of the members and reporters depend on the media organizations for support. If members are not enthusiastic about the Association's activities and do not fully understand the organization's role, then mobilizing them to participate in the Association's movements will be extremely difficult.

On May 27, 2023, the Hai Phong City Journalists Association organized a photojournalism workshop focusing on transportation and tourism projects in Hai Phong City.

In addition, the Standing Vice Chairman of the Hai Phong Journalists Association also stated that, in addition to the two factors mentioned above, a third factor is still needed – the attention of local leaders, the Vietnam Journalists Association, and central agencies. He cited the example of Hai Phong City, where the city's leaders have shown very concrete support for the Hai Phong Journalists Association. The city has invited the Association's leaders to attend events such as: the City Party Congress; the monthly regular meetings organized by the City People's Committee; the sessions of the City People's Council; and the monthly briefing conferences organized by the City Party Committee's Propaganda Department… Through these events, the Association's leaders have obtained accurate information about the political, economic, and social situation of the city to effectively perform their function of monitoring the press.

Furthermore, the city places its trust in the staff of the Journalists' Association, entrusting them with drafting numerous documents related to journalistic activities, the Association's work, and other important areas concerning the promotion and image building of the city. They also participate in handling sensitive issues related to journalism and public opinion…

In particular, over the past two years, the People's Committee of Hai Phong City has paid attention to allocating funds for the Hai Phong City Journalists Association to renovate and upgrade its headquarters, ensuring a spacious and comfortable working environment and the capacity to organize events. This aims to help build the Hai Phong City Journalists Association into a common home for journalist members working in the port city. This is a meaningful and very important source of encouragement for the Hai Phong City Journalists Association to successfully organize its activities.

Along with the attention of the city's leaders, the Hai Phong City Journalists Association also receives great and consistent attention from the Vietnam Journalists Association in guiding and leading the local Journalists Association to fulfill its assigned political tasks, as well as fully participate in the activities of the Central Association such as: receiving and working with the high-level delegation of the Lao Journalists Association, participating in the Press Cup Football Tournament in Quang Ninh, and the Table Tennis Tournament in Hanoi organized by the Vietnam Journalists Association.

Sharing his aspirations from the perspective of someone with many years of experience working in the Journalists' Association, journalist Anh Tú hopes that the Vietnam Journalists' Association will pay attention to and propose to the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Finance the allocation of staff positions for Association officials who receive salaries from the state budget. For example, how many positions should be allocated to a provincial or city-level Journalists' Association with 100 members, and how many to a provincial or city-level Association with 200 members?

It is known that the Ministry of Interior has not yet issued any new announcement regarding the allocation of personnel for local Journalists' Associations. Secondly, to improve the quality of the Association's activities, he suggested that leaders of media agencies pay more attention and create conditions for journalist members to participate in activities organized by the Association, such as professional training, seminars, workshops, as well as cultural, sports, and social charitable activities. Thirdly, to encourage Journalists' Associations in provinces and cities, he requested that the Vietnam Journalists' Association consider increasing the number of units receiving awards in the annual emulation clusters…

May River

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/3-yeu-to-then-chot-lam-nen-chat-luong-hoat-dong-cong-tac-hoi-post249907.html