Story of a respected colleague

Journalist Pham Ngoc Chuan during a reporting trip to an ethnic minority area of the province.

In 1999, when I was a senior student at the Faculty of Journalism, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), interning at Thai Nguyen Newspaper, I had the opportunity to work with journalist Pham Ngoc Chuan many times. Applying knowledge from books to practical work is not easy. However, through the times working with him, being guided meticulously by him, I "broke out" a lot. The knowledge he taught me helped me approach the job much more smoothly...

After graduating, more than a year later (late 2000) when Thai Nguyen Newspaper organized a recruitment exam for reporters, I registered and was lucky to be accepted. From then on, I became his colleague. He always enthusiastically helped his juniors, and I and many other young people at that time were guided a lot in professional matters by journalist Pham Ngoc Chuan.

During the times I worked at the base with him, I remember most the time I went to learn about the illegal gold mining situation in Tan Linh commune (Dai Tu).

When we arrived at the illegal mining area, the scene was extremely chaotic. Fearing that I would be attacked by bad elements, he instructed me on how to handle the situation. After walking around the "gold mine", while the illegal miners were looking at us with scrutinizing and wary eyes, suddenly a young man approached and greeted journalist Pham Ngoc Chuan very politely.

At that moment, I saw that the gold miners no longer had a “snarling” look towards us. I felt great admiration for my predecessor.

Although I am a young journalist, new to the profession, I understand the value of a true journalist. It is his integrity and sharp writing that has made everyone, no matter who they are (from farmers, intellectuals, even those who have just finished their prison terms...) who have talked to, read and felt the works of journalist Ngoc Chuan, give him respect and admiration...

I was lucky to be able to work with him at the base, learn how to exploit information and collect documents. But it did not stop there, he was also the one who directly commented on the articles, helping me gain a lot of experience in the process of expressing journalistic works.

I remember following him to learn about the reality in Ha Thuong commune (Dai Tu). At that time, the Provincial Youth Union was launching a journalism contest about young people starting their own businesses, so I asked the local authorities to introduce a typical example. With his support, I completed the collection of documents quite completely and quickly finished the article and gave it to him to read and comment on.

Even though he was quite busy with his personal work, he still took the time to read each sentence, each word and guide me to edit the article. He said: The title is very important, you have to think and write an attractive title so that the article can attract readers.

After a while of scratching my head, the titles I gave were still very "common". Finally, he "snatched" a very good title for me "Building a career on the hill". Thanks to his support, my article was highly appreciated by the Editorial Board of Thai Nguyen Newspaper. The happiest thing was that this article later won the Second Prize of that year's contest.

His help and guidance made me understand and appreciate this senior colleague more. That is, he did not keep his profession to himself. For him, helping young colleagues to progress and contribute to the development of the newspaper was a joy, a happiness, and a meaningful part of the work that he should do.

Journalist Pham Ngoc Chuan often travels to work in mountainous and highland areas of the province.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the “fortune” of awards of journalist Ngoc Chuan. After decades of working in the profession, he has won many journalism awards from ministries, central agencies and Thai Nguyen province. Many times, he has had the honor of standing on the podium to receive the first prize in journalism competitions.

All his colleagues always call him "the reporter", and admire the talent of the journalist known as the "wizard of words" with a "mountain" of prestigious journalism awards.

Honestly, we understand that in Thai Nguyen or the domestic press, your reputation has spread far and wide, and is remembered by many colleagues and readers inside and outside the province.

However, journalist Pham Ngoc Chuan is always humble, lives simply and constantly strives to excel, completing all assigned tasks excellently. He said: Journalism is a very special profession. We will fall behind if we do not put our best efforts into our work...

Because of that thought, up to now, although he is a veteran journalist of Thai Nguyen Newspaper, journalist Ngoc Chuan still diligently writes each word, contributing to the development of Thai Nguyen Newspaper and Thai Nguyen journalism. We always take him as an example of inspiration and passion for the profession for generations of juniors to follow.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/xa-hoi/202506/chuyen-ve-nguoi-dong-nghiep-dang-kinh-2b70c78/