Learn from Uncle Ho: keep your eyes sharp, your heart pure, and your pen incisive.

He wrote thousands of articles under hundreds of different pseudonyms, in various languages: Vietnamese, French, Russian, Chinese, English… His journalistic legacy retains its theoretical and practical value for the development of revolutionary Vietnamese journalism in the present era.

The founder and guiding figure of revolutionary journalism in Vietnam.

For nearly a century, the revolutionary press of Vietnam has served as a sharp weapon and a powerful "branch" of ideological and cultural work, accompanying the cause of national defense and construction. Based on the Party's guidelines, the press provides society and the people with political information orientations, ensuring that these guidelines are ingrained and put into practice.

President Ho Chi Minh, the great teacher of revolutionary Vietnamese journalism..png — President Ho Chi Minh - an outstanding journalist, the founder of revolutionary journalism in Vietnam.

As the founder of the Communist Party of Vietnam , President Ho Chi Minh once affirmed: "Our Party is strong because our Party has ideological unity and unified action, from top to bottom. The Party's newspaper has the task of ensuring that thought and action are clear and unified."

The history of revolutionary journalism in Vietnam has demonstrated the role of the press as an ideological and theoretical weapon, as the mouthpiece of the Party, vigorously fighting against the opposing ideological trends of colonialism, imperialism, and reactionary collaborators to protect the Party. Through polemical writings, communists achieved victories in the struggle against reformist nationalism, against Trotskyism; against left-wing and right-wing errors within the Party and in revolutionary mass organizations…

The press is a revolutionary ideological and theoretical weapon, a powerful tool for propagating Marxism-Leninism and the Party's revolutionary line in various stages of the revolution, thereby actively contributing to building a scientific worldview and methodology, and consolidating a solid ideological foundation for cadres, Party members, and the masses.

Furthermore, revolutionary newspapers also served as weapons of propaganda, mobilization, and organization, contributing to the education of patriotism and political awareness among the masses. President Ho Chi Minh recognized early on: "In today's era, without a political newspaper, there can be no movement called political," and "we need a newspaper first and foremost; without it, we cannot systematically conduct a comprehensive and principled propaganda and mobilization campaign." Throughout his struggle for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland, leader Nguyen Ai Quoc diligently researched, studied, and learned to directly write articles and publish them in newspapers, producing journalistic publications that condemned the barbaric crimes of colonialism and imperialism against the people of the colonies.

On June 21, 1925, after returning to Guangzhou (China), Ho Chi Minh founded the Thanh Nien (Youth) newspaper, the official organ of the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association (one of the precursor organizations of the Communist Party of Vietnam). He directly supervised, served as the chief editor, and was a key writer for the newspaper. The newspaper made significant contributions to promoting patriotism, arousing the will and aspirations for national independence and freedom, disseminating Marxism-Leninism in Vietnam, awakening the people, guiding them in revolutionary struggle, and preparing the ideological, political, organizational, and personnel foundations for the birth of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

According to Ho Chi Minh, the press is a weapon of revolutionary struggle; therefore, it must possess a fighting spirit, a guiding nature, and a mass character to propagate, encourage, train, educate, and organize the masses to act for the common good of the revolution. The press must “explain clearly to the people,” “explain the government’s policies,” “express the people’s aspirations to the government,” “mobilize and train the people,” “organize its own forces,” and “call on the entire nation to unite, enthusiastically resist, and believe in victory.” Journalists are soldiers on the ideological and cultural front: “The pen is a sharp weapon, the newspaper article is a revolutionary manifesto to mobilize the masses to unite and fight against old and new colonialism, against imperialism, led by American imperialism, for national independence, social progress, and world peace”; “Your pens are also sharp weapons in the cause of upholding justice and eliminating evil”...

Applying Ho Chi Minh's ideology, promoting the role of revolutionary journalism in the current period.

In the current process of reform, the revolutionary press of Vietnam has strongly promoted its particularly important role: as the voice of the Party, the State, and political, social, and professional organizations; and as a reliable forum for 100 million Vietnamese people and more than 5.3 million Vietnamese people abroad.

The press has effectively disseminated information on tasks and solutions for socio-economic development, ensuring national defense and security, and proactively and actively integrating into the international community. The press has delved into the realities of life, promptly reflecting the legitimate aspirations and desires of the people; and combating negative phenomena such as corruption, waste, bureaucracy, abuse of power, and harassment of the people. The press is also a sharp weapon in the fight against the distorted narratives of hostile and reactionary forces, protecting the Party's revolutionary cause in the new situation.

In the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution posing many new challenges for Vietnam's revolutionary press, with the emergence of numerous new media outlets and social media platforms with their incredibly rapid dissemination of information, Vietnam's revolutionary press must increasingly heed President Ho Chi Minh's teachings, upholding the political stance of the Party and State, closely following the rapid, complex, and unpredictable developments in the international and domestic situations to reflect them fully, accurately, and in the most beneficial way for the nation's revolutionary cause.

The 4th Plenum of the 12th Central Committee emphasized: Promoting the role and upholding the responsibility of press agencies and their governing bodies in the fight against degradation, bureaucracy, corruption, waste, negative phenomena, "self-evolution," and "self-transformation." Actively providing information regularly or on an ad hoc basis; focusing on disseminating the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's laws and regulations, the achievements in the cause of national construction and defense, positive factors, advanced models, and good deeds with the motto "using beauty to overcome ugliness," and "using positivity to push back negativity"...

The conference also set forth the task of continuing to innovate the leadership and management methods of the Party and State towards the press in accordance with new requirements, guiding the healthy development of the press, and making it a vanguard force in protecting the ideological foundation of the Party and combating the distorted and false narratives of hostile forces. It also emphasized the effective implementation of the Party's 13th Resolution: Strengthening the management and development of various forms of media and information on the internet. It stressed the need to resolutely combat and eliminate harmful, distorted, reactionary products and information that negatively affect political and social stability and the traditional customs and values of the Vietnamese nation.

In this context, today's journalists must deeply internalize President Ho Chi Minh's views on the role of revolutionary journalism; always uphold the fighting spirit; maintain "sharp eyes, pure heart, and incisive pen"; deeply understand their mission and responsibility in the cause of "supporting righteousness and eliminating evil" to produce works worthy of the heroic nation and the glorious era, serving the revolutionary cause of the Party, and building a prosperous and powerful country as the beloved Uncle Ho earnestly wished.

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