Golden Hammer and Sickle Award: Deeply and clearly demonstrating the "quality" of Party building

The 8th Golden Hammer and Sickle Award Ceremony was broadcast live by Vietnam Television and Voice of Vietnam at 8:10 p.m. on February 1 from the Vietnam-Soviet Friendship Labor Cultural Palace.

The 7th Golden Hammer and Sickle Journalism Awards Ceremony 2022 took place in Hanoi on the evening of February 3, 2023. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA)

Since the first season was awarded on February 3, 2017, the National Press Award on Party Building has been a prestigious press award, a big brand and highly appreciated by experts.

The 8th Golden Hammer and Sickle Award Ceremony - 2023 will be broadcast live by Vietnam Television and Voice of Vietnam at 8:10 p.m. on February 1 from the Vietnam-Soviet Friendship Labor Cultural Palace.

Before the Announcement and Award Ceremony, Mr. Ngo Minh Tuan, Editor-in-Chief of Party Building Magazine, Standing Agency of the Award, Vice Chairman of the Preliminary Council, Head of the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award Secretariat had an interview with a reporter from Vietnam News Agency.

- Sir, 2023 is the eighth year of the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award. Through each season, the National Press Award on Party building has increasingly demonstrated its prestige, attracting a large number of authors and groups of authors to participate. In your opinion, what are the factors that make the Award successful?

Mr. Ngo Minh Tuan: For a press award to be prestigious and recognized by the press as an award that everyone aspires to achieve in their journalism career, the first step is organization. With the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award, the organization is very strict and methodical.

Right from the first year of launching the Award, the Central Organizing Committee established the Award Steering Committee including leaders of the Central Organizing Committee, the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Information and Communications, Nhan Dan Newspaper, Communist Magazine, Vietnam Television and the Vietnam Journalists Association .

These are the advisory bodies of the Central Party, state management of the press and publishing sector and have the function of gathering journalists nationwide.

All of these have created a "combined force" that coordinates very closely and creates a combined strength, from organizational work, to orienting the key content of information, propaganda and mobilizing journalists to actively respond to participate in the Award.

Next, the Steering Committee assigned a permanent agency - a specialized and highly professional support agency, which is the Party Building Magazine under the Central Organizing Committee.

Second, the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award has mobilized all forces in the political system to participate, including Party committees and organizations from the Central to local levels; at each level, there is the cooperation of advisory agencies of the Party committees, including the Propaganda Department, the Party Committee's organizing committee and the political-social-professional organization of journalists, the Journalists Association.

At the same time, actively promote and mobilize to attract the attention of cadres, party members and people to participate. It can be said that the Award has received the response and participation of the entire political system.

Third, the judging process is guaranteed to be independent, objective, impartial and transparent. The Standing Committee of the Award has consulted with the Steering Committee to establish two judging councils, including the Preliminary Council and the Final Council.

The Councils are attended by prestigious and experienced journalists; people with in-depth knowledge of propaganda work on Party building.

In addition, the organization of the Award Ceremony must also be extremely solemn. The venue for the Announcement and Award Ceremony for the past seven seasons was the Hanoi Opera House. This year, the venue was moved to the Vietnam-Soviet Friendship Labor Cultural Palace to accommodate a larger scale event, becoming an activity of profound political significance on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam on February 3.

In addition to the prize money, the winning author also receives a meaningful and valuable Golden Hammer and Sickle trophy, so that the winning author truly feels honored and proud when standing on stage to receive the Prize.

All these factors have contributed to the success and affirmed the reputation and brand of the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award over the years.

- In 2023, the Organizing Committee received 2,216 entries for the Award. What is your assessment of the quality of the finalists for the 8th Golden Hammer and Sickle Award in 2023?

Mr. Ngo Minh Tuan: 2023 is the year with the largest number of works participating in the Award (2,216 works, an increase of 184 works compared to 2022), but the overall quality is more consistent and better than previous seasons.

The works that entered the final round have made a very encouraging step forward, ensuring quality in content, harmonizing genres, types, regions and covering all provinces and cities in the country.

To achieve that result, right after the Launching Ceremony of the 8th Golden Hammer and Sickle Award - 2023, as the Standing Agency of the Award, Party Building Magazine consulted with the Steering Committee and the Organizing Committee of the Award to issue Plan No. 106-KH/BTCTW, dated March 20, 2023 of the Central Organizing Committee on organizing the Award (with the Award Rules attached).

Plan No. 106-KH/BTCTW sets out the requirement that through press works participating in the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award, cadres, party members and people will have a deeper understanding of the Party and the work of Party building and building the political system; continue to improve the quality and effectiveness of organizing the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award to become an activity of profound political significance, with practical effects on the work of Party building.

The content of the work must raise new issues in Party building work that are of public interest; have discovery, summary or guidance that is persuasive and highly socially effective, actively serving Party building work; have attractive and creative methods of expression; have a strong social impact and spillover effect.

The Standing Agency of the Award has advised the leaders of the Central Organizing Committee to issue a Plan for information and propaganda on Party building and political system building in 2023 (Plan No. 114-KH/BTCTW dated April 21, 2023).

Therefore, the works have closely followed the hot issues, outstanding events, and key tasks of the political system and the country. Many works have deeply reflected the current issues of Party building and rectification. Some works have mentioned the current pressing issues, with high social criticism and combativeness.

To help leaders, reporters, editors of press agencies and journalists nationwide gain deeper knowledge about Party building, gain more skills and experience in creating press works, contributing to improving the quality of works participating in the Award, the Central Organizing Committee issued Plan No. 115-KH/BTCTW dated April 21, 2023 on "Training knowledge about Party building for reporters and editors of news agencies and newspapers in 2023," in coordination with the Ministry of Information and Communications to organize the Training Conference on Party Building Work in 2023 online, connecting from the Central Organizing Committee's bridge to 67 bridge points of the Organizing Committees of Provincial Party Committees, City Party Committees, and Party Committees directly under the Central Committee. As a result, 1,867 people attended.

Of the 63 provinces and centrally-run cities, nearly 40 provinces and cities have organized the provincial Golden Hammer and Sickle Awards, creating an exciting atmosphere in response to the 8th Golden Hammer and Sickle Awards in 2023 and promoting information and propaganda work on Party building and political system building.

Central press agencies have always actively participated with many high-quality works. In the local press sector, in addition to familiar faces, this year there are many localities that have invested carefully and have many high-quality works.

It is noteworthy that the quality of local press this year is consistent and has made more obvious progress compared to 2022.

- Compared to previous seasons, what is new about the content of the press works in this year's Golden Hammer and Sickle Awards, sir?

Mr. Ngo Minh Tuan: A new feature in the content of the press works participating in this year's Award is that they vividly and promptly reflect the events and political activities of the Party such as the launch of books by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the Mid-Term Conference (7th Central Conference) and the Resolutions of the Central Executive Committee and the Politburo (13th tenure) focusing on leadership and direction in building culture and ethics in the Party, planning the contingent of strategic-level cadres; fighting against "fear of responsibility" and building a mechanism to protect cadres who dare to think, dare to do, dare to act for the common good; the work of inspection, supervision, and control of power associated with the fight against corruption and negativity; fighting against wrong and distorted views to protect the Party's ideological foundation and protect national sovereignty in cyberspace; Digital Transformation and application of technology in Party work; developing six strategic and important socio-economic regions...

In addition, there are series of articles that delve into the causes of the phenomenon of many cadres and party members degenerating in political ideology, morality, lifestyle, "self-evolution," "self-transformation"; or delve into the areas of Party organization and building work, such as cadre work, grassroots party organization work, and improving the quality of party members.

Particularly on the issue of fighting against distorted arguments about religion, ethnicity and human rights in Vietnam, this year, there are many articles expressing rich, vivid, profound, very tight arguments, highly convincing.

In addition, some press works have reflected new factors, good models, and creative ways of doing things in many localities.

Notably, the 8th Golden Hammer and Sickle Awards 2023 has the largest number of provincial press agencies submitting television works ever, even including district-level cultural centers, television programs of the Public Security, Military Commands of provinces and private media companies submitting works to participate in the Awards.

Some works have great depth and quality, high propaganda effectiveness, and sharply refute the distorted arguments of bad guys, such as when there was an attack on two commune People's Committee headquarters in Dak Lak.

The central press units have the strength of having many political works, raising issues that cover the whole country, while the local press is strong in articles reflecting new ways of doing things from the grassroots and shining examples of typical groups and individuals.

The content of protecting ideological foundations not only appears in the works of central press agencies but also in many local newspapers and radio and television stations.

Many works after being published and broadcast have attracted the attention of the public and readers. This shows that the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award is increasingly spreading strongly.

Through 2,216 works participating in the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award this time, a panoramic picture of the country's political, socio-economic, security-defense, and foreign affairs life in 2023 was shown with very bright colors, as the General Secretary said: "Our country has never had such a foundation, potential, position, and international prestige as it does today."

- Could you tell us what is new in this year's judging criteria compared to previous years?

Mr. Ngo Minh Tuan: The 2023 award criteria are basically the same as many previous years, such as being clear about the genre; duration as well as the number of episodes according to regulations; honestly reflecting events and phenomena; clear, easy-to-understand and emotional expression.

The Organizing Committee noted that the content of the work must raise new issues in Party building work that are of interest to public opinion; have the quality of discovery, summary or guidance, be highly persuasive and socially effective, actively serve Party building work; have attractive and creative methods of expression; have a strong social impact and spillover effect.

The jury encourages and highly appreciates works in which the writer has committed himself to going into difficult places to discover typical examples, groups, and localities with good practices; or works that discover problems to thereby reflect the high determination and efforts of the entire Party, people, and army, especially in 2023, a pivotal year to strive to successfully implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress.

- How are journalistic qualities and "quality" of Party building expressed in the works nominated for the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award, sir?

Mr. Ngo Minh Tuan: The journalistic character and "quality" of Party building in the works participating in the 8th Golden Hammer and Sickle Award - 2023 are much clearer than in previous seasons.

If in the early years, the "quality" of Party building in press works had a gap between central and local press agencies or was uneven between print newspapers and radio, television, and electronic newspapers, then up to now, in all genres, the "quality" of Party building has been very profound and clear.

Many works show the meticulousness in researching themes, ways of expression, collecting information and documents, reflecting the breath of life, closely following the key points in information and propaganda work on Party building and building the political system in 2023.

To achieve this progress, at the beginning of the year, the Central Organizing Committee issued a Plan for information and propaganda on Party building and political system building in 2023 with five key points.

On that basis, all press agencies from central to local levels organize content to promote and build article lines, from which select good quality works to participate in the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award.

Therefore, the works participating in the Award have a clearer journalistic character, and a very profound Party-building quality. These factors make the quality of journalistic works participating in the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award this year much better.

- In your opinion, what improvements are needed in the coming time so that the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award can continue to develop and strengthen its reputation and position as one of the country's leading journalism awards?

Mr. Ngo Minh Tuan: As the Standing Agency of the Award, we will accept comments and suggestions to gain experience and advise the Steering Committee and the Organizing Committee of the Award to continue to improve the criteria and standards in selecting works.

The organization of the Award will also be further improved, with attention paid to promoting the Award and the winning works better, creating a wider spread.

Regarding the content, there will have to be additions to make it more suitable to reality, so that more people working in many fields can participate in the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award and the content of the works covers all aspects of the country's political, socio-economic, security, defense, and foreign affairs life.

Currently, the Golden Hammer and Sickle Award is not only expanding domestically but also internationally. Many overseas Vietnamese have written and submitted articles to the Award. And every year, the Organizing Committee sets aside a prize to honor overseas Vietnamese authors with outstanding works.

Thank you very much!

Binh Duyen (According to VNA)

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