Vietnam Revolutionary Press

The country is moving strongly towards new development goals, at the same time history is placing new missions on the shoulders of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press. Those missions may be unprecedented, but 98 years of accompanying the country's history have shown that the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press under the leadership of the Party has always risen from its own position and become a strong internal force for development for the country and the nation.

1. Unlike many other presses, the Vietnamese press - right from its first steps, was identified as "Revolutionary Press", with the mission of "serving the people". Rarely has a press had its starting point so closely linked to the starting point of a country's national liberation revolution. Rarely has a press been born and deeply attached, always cared for and guided by a great leader, a world cultural celebrity like that.

That starting point of Thanh Nien newspaper, with the goal of spreading Marxism-Leninism, propagating revolutionary theory, and the path of revolution to the working people, is the foundation for Vietnamese journalism to be named "Revolutionary Journalism".

Throughout his revolutionary life, he was attached to the press. From his first article (“The Native Problem” published in L'Humanité on August 2, 1919) to his last work before his death (“Raising the Responsibility for the Care and Education of Children and Youth” published in Nhan Dan Newspaper on June 1, 1969), he always firmly grasped and promoted the political role of the press. And, this weapon followed him throughout his great revolutionary life, throughout his life of sacrificing everything for the Fatherland and for the people.

Vietnamese press - right from its first steps, was identified as "Revolutionary Press", with the mission of "serving the people". Photo: TL

From that fundamental beginning, the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press has continuously accompanied the struggles against invasion, unification of the country, national construction, innovation, and increasingly deep integration with international friends.

In the world, throughout history, there are few leaders who directly founded, edited many newspapers and directly wrote thousands of articles in many languages ​​like Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh . And, all those newspapers, all those thousands of articles, have a single task, a single mission, which is to serve the people, serve the Fatherland, for the independence of the nation, for a free and happy life for their compatriots.

He repeatedly reiterated and emphasized that mission of the press. At the 2nd Congress of the Vietnam Journalists Association (April 16, 1959), Uncle Ho shared with journalists: “Regarding the content of the writing, which you call “theme”, all the articles I wrote had only one “theme”: fighting against colonialism, imperialism, feudalism, and landlords, and propagating national independence and socialism”.

In 1962, at the 3rd Congress of the Vietnam Journalists Association, Uncle Ho continued to emphasize: " The task of the press is to serve the people and serve the revolution."

To serve the people, he advised that journalists must be close to the people. In a letter to the journalism training class at Huynh Thuc Khang School, he pointed out that if one wants to write for the press, one must go to the people. If one “just sits in a paper room and writes, one cannot write practically.”

As a citizen, the civic duty not only requires journalists to comply with the constitution and the law in their professional activities, but also to always keep in mind the goal of serving whom, writing for whom, writing for what purpose and writing in a way that does not harm the interests of the people and the country. At the same time, journalists must uphold social responsibility; must know how to praise the good, the new and progressive and actively fight against the bad, the wrong, the backward...

2. In a recent press meeting, Comrade Truong Thi Mai - Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Organization Committee - emphasized that the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press needs to take on the mission of protecting the Party's ideological foundation. That is also the new mission of the Vietnamese revolutionary press, thereby contributing to arousing great aspirations and big dreams to create spiritual strength. Because from spiritual strength, material strength will be multiplied. No country or nation has ever developed without spiritual strength.

Reporters at work. Photo: TL

That mission has been clearly defined in the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress, the press must take the lead in researching theories, summarizing practices, protecting and developing Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought, making an important contribution to forming and gradually perfecting the theory of the Party's innovation cause, the theory of the path to socialism, and the innovation of the Party's organization and leadership methods in new conditions.

The strong development of science and technology, digital information, and social networks has made the press develop rapidly in terms of scale, structure, and type, making it very easy to spread erroneous and hostile viewpoints. Therefore, with the mission of protecting the Party's ideological foundation, the urgent requirement for the press is to proactively fight against erroneous and hostile viewpoints and protect the ideological foundation. The Vietnamese Revolutionary Press needs to continue to promote its achievements and advantages and overcome difficulties, weaknesses, and challenges to develop a press that is truly a tool and weapon for the Party's direction and leadership, an essential means of society, and makes an important contribution to building and protecting the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.

The new role and mission in orienting public opinion of the Vietnamese revolutionary press also requires creating social consensus. When the leadership's guidelines and policies are consistent with the will, thoughts and aspirations of the vast majority of the people, it will become a great strength. Thanks to creating social consensus, our people are of one mind, the North and the South have one will, overcoming all sacrifices and hardships to gain independence and unify the country. And, this lesson continues to be vividly demonstrated in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland, innovation, and international economic integration; or in the context of complicated and unpredictable epidemic developments like in recent years.

3. The growth and development of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press has always been under the comprehensive and direct leadership of the Party; the management of the State; the companionship and trust of the People. That is an extremely great source of encouragement for the press to best promote its revolutionary role, functions and tasks in each stage of the country's development. And it also places on the press heavy but glorious responsibilities to fulfill the noble mission that the Party and the People have trusted and assigned.

The press has completed the arrangement part of the Plan. The next part of the Plan is press development. And this is the main part of the Plan. That is the building of strong press agencies. Because only when they are strong can they be professional, orient and lead public opinion.

At the 13th National Party Congress, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, in his speech " National digital transformation, development of digital government, digital economy and digital society, meeting the requirements of national development in the new era", emphasized: Vietnam is one of the first countries in the world to issue a National Digital Transformation program, making Vietnam a country with digital transformation awareness alongside advanced countries in the world. This is a favorable condition for Vietnam to proactively exploit the opportunities brought by the technological revolution and make a breakthrough, changing the rankings. Digital transformation has a profound impact, covering all industries and socio-economic fields, contributing to increasing labor productivity, transforming operating and business models towards innovation, thereby improving the country's competitiveness.

According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, in the digital transformation process, the press and media play an important role. The mission of the press and media is to strengthen the protection of the Party's ideological foundation and the nation's fine cultural values; proactively and actively fight against bad and toxic information, clean up cyberspace; honestly reflect the mainstream of society, create social consensus, while spreading positive energy, building social trust and creating aspirations for a strong and prosperous Vietnam. Every country that wants to develop and rise must arouse that national spiritual strength. The information and communications industry forms a pair of wings: One wing is digital technology, the other is the press and media. These wings will contribute to making the country fly up, fly high and fly far based on its internal material and spiritual strength.

In addition to the role of creating trust, aspiration, and arousing national spirit, the press and media also have to carry out their own digital transformation process.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung has oriented and directed the specific tasks of the press: “ If we continue to report on who, where, what, when, the press will remain the same as it was hundreds of years ago. But if the press honestly reflects the mainstream of society, propagates the Party and State's guidelines and policies that penetrate deeply into each citizen, spreads positive energy, creates social consensus and trust, arouses the aspiration for a strong and prosperous Vietnam, contributes to creating spiritual strength for Vietnam to break through and become a high-income developed country, then the press has taken on a new mission. Any country that has transformed into a dragon or a tiger relies mainly on spiritual strength. This strength is only activated when the country has a big dream, a big aspiration... The task of the press is to arouse this aspiration in all Vietnamese people, and from this aspiration it becomes spiritual strength, and from this spiritual strength it becomes action to develop the country”.

The spiral of technology may never end. The press now and in the future will face pressure to innovate every day. But no matter what technology platform, no matter how advanced journalism techniques are, there are core values ​​of journalism that cannot and must not be lost.

Journalists need to be thoroughly aware of this issue to ensure that the information they provide is attractive enough to attract the public with those humane and good things. The more accurate, timely and useful the information provided by the press is, the more satisfied the public will be. In other words, the higher the public satisfaction index for the press, the greater the political mettle, professional qualities and social responsibility of the journalist. Once a journalist persistently and sincerely nurtures trust, day by day - through his good journalistic works - to sow trust in the public, to cultivate trust in society, then he will certainly receive the love and affection of the public and society and create favorable conditions and environments for the press to operate.

The digital age allows Vietnamese revolutionary journalists more means and "weapons" to more easily fulfill their role as the mouthpiece of the Party and the State, a broad forum for the people. The digital age also creates pressure for each journalist, each agency and type of press to be objective, frankly look back at themselves, review their will, knowledge and determination, review their hearts to have enough courage to protect what is right, resolutely fight against what is bad, so that each journalist and each newspaper can truly be a solid, trustworthy milestone in the "sea of ​​waves" of information in multiple dimensions.

The country is moving strongly towards new development goals, at the same time history is placing new missions on the shoulders of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press. Those missions may be unprecedented, but 98 years of accompanying the country's history have shown that the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press under the leadership of the Party has always risen from its own position and become a strong internal force for development for the country and the nation.

Khanh An

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/bao-chi-cach-mang-viet-nam--su-menh-tram-nam-post251868.html