Spreading the responsibility of protecting the environment in the capital city through the press and the community.

After five years of implementation, the program has affirmed its role as an in-depth policy communication forum, contributing to raising social awareness and promoting action for a green and sustainable environment in the capital city.

The organizing committee presented Certificates of Commendation from the Chairman of the City People's Committee to collectives and individuals. Photo: Nguyen Quy

The impact has spread strongly after 5 years of implementation.

In his opening remarks at the closing ceremony, Nguyen Thanh Loi, Editor-in-Chief of the Economic & Urban Newspaper and Head of the program's organizing committee, stated that 2025 marks the fifth consecutive year that the Economic & Urban Newspaper has been entrusted by the Hanoi People's Committee to host the environmental protection communication program in the city. Starting as a writing competition, the program has gradually become a prestigious annual communication activity with increasing professional depth and social impact.

According to Editor-in-Chief Nguyen Thanh Loi, the 2025 program is being implemented in a special context: many localities and units are restructuring and streamlining their apparatus; the two-tiered local government model is officially coming into operation; media agencies are undergoing mergers and consolidations; and at the same time, there are complex developments of natural disasters, storms, and floods in many places.

The organizing committee presented certificates of merit to individuals who contributed to the success of the tournament. Photo: Nguyen Quy

“Under those circumstances, maintaining a long-term, serious, and systematic environmental communication program is a tremendous effort. However, with the close attention and guidance of Hanoi city leaders, the responsible coordination of departments, agencies, and localities, and the support of the business community, the program has been implemented on schedule, achieved its goals, and yielded many positive results,” Mr. Nguyen Thanh Loi emphasized.

In 2025, the program will focus on two key areas: a writing competition on "Environmental Protection in Hanoi" and an environmental communication event, including a seminar titled "Waste Sorting at Source: From Commitment to Action," held in Hoang Liet ward (November 2025). The seminar is expected to attract approximately 300 delegates, including managers, experts, and businesses, contributing to clarifying obstacles and solutions in the implementation of waste sorting at source in the city.

The organizing committee awarded the first prize to the winning team of authors. Photo: Nguyen Quy

However, according to the organizers, the overarching highlight and core element of the communication program remains the writing competition – a platform that brings together the voices of journalists, experts, and citizens on the environmental issues facing the capital city.

Despite the tight timeframe for launching the 5th Writing Contest - 2025, in less than 5 months, the contest still attracted 3,560 entries, an increase of 584 entries compared to 2024 and nearly 12 times more than the first year's contest in 2020. The contest involved 213 organizations and units, with 35 series of entries and 3,525 individual essays.

The organizing committee awarded second prize to the winning teams. Photo: Nguyen Quy

Celebrating works of socially responsible journalism.

The entries were presented in various modern journalistic formats, such as longform, eMagazine, megastory, multimedia, etc., vividly reflecting the "pulse" of urban life, the efforts of the city government, and the environmental challenges in Hanoi's rapid and sustainable development.

The articles focus on four main themes: Waste classification, collection, and treatment, and solutions suitable for Hanoi's context; improving the environment of rivers, lakes, and craft villages, and developing green agriculture ; green transportation, reducing emissions, and improving air quality; and exemplary models, initiatives, and actions of organizations and individuals in environmental protection.

The organizers commended the businesses that sponsored the competition. Photo: Nguyen Quy

Notably, this year's competition saw active participation from many professional journalists from central and Hanoi-based media agencies, as well as increasingly significant contributions from "amateur authors" including officials, teachers, students, and citizens. These works offered relatable perspectives from the grassroots, vividly reflecting environmental issues in daily life and spreading positive actions and best practices within the community.

In particular, the participation of 119 schools in the capital city with thousands of entries from teachers and students further affirms the widespread effectiveness of the competition in the education sector, contributing to the formation of environmental awareness and responsibility among young people right from the school level.

After a rigorous and objective judging process, the Final Judging Panel and the Organizing Committee selected 16 outstanding works to award prizes, including: 1 First Prize, 2 Second Prizes, 3 Third Prizes, and 10 Consolation Prizes. The awarded works all met the competition criteria well, clearly demonstrating problem identification, in-depth analysis, proposed solutions relevant to practice, and high social impact.

The first prize was awarded to the five-part series "Hanoi on the Green Journey: Planning, People, and Urban Culture" (Economic & Urban Newspaper), which clarifies the requirement for "greening" not only in planning and infrastructure but also in development thinking and urban culture - considering the environment as a living value, a measure of development quality.

The organizing committee launched the environmental protection communication program in the city in 2026. Photo: Nguyen Quy

In addition, the five-part series "Rebuilding the Inter-regional Environment of the Capital: From Strategic Planning to Action Solutions" (Economics and Environment Magazine) and the five-part series "Green Cities: Unleashing Green Streams" (HanoiMoi Newspaper) have deeply analyzed the problem of river and lake pollution, inter-regional environmental issues, placing environmental issues in close relation to urban governance capacity, social consensus, and the vision for sustainable development of the Capital...

The closing ceremony was not only an opportunity to look back on the program's five-year journey, but also to affirm the important role of the press in policy communication, connecting the government, experts, and citizens, contributing to promoting action for a green, clean, livable, and sustainably developed Hanoi.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/lan-toa-trach-nhiem-bao-ve-moi-truong-thu-do-tu-bao-chi-va-cong-dong-727149.html