Focus on removing bottlenecks arising after 8 years of implementing the Press Law

The National Assembly 's afternoon session on the revised Press Law on November 24. Photo: Pham Dong

Focus on removing bottlenecks to ensure press development

The National Assembly has just discussed in the hall the draft Law on Press (amended). The draft law will be voted on and approved by the National Assembly at the meeting on December 10.

Explaining and clarifying a number of issues raised by National Assembly deputies, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said that after the ministry was assigned the task of state management in the press field, the Government directed the ministry to preside over and coordinate with relevant agencies to develop a draft Law on Press (amended) to submit to the National Assembly.

At the group discussion session, National Assembly delegates contributed many valuable opinions, which the drafting agency seriously accepted and reported.

During the discussion session in the hall, delegates made many profound statements. Opinions expressed the hope that the law would be promulgated in a timely and synchronous manner to institutionalize the Party's viewpoints and guidelines and the State's policies on the press.

The law must ensure that the Vietnamese revolutionary press, with its 100-year tradition, continues to develop, ensuring humanity, professionalism, and modernity. The revised law must focus on removing bottlenecks, problems, and inadequacies that have arisen after 8 years of implementation.

Regarding the protection of the legitimate rights of journalists and the people's freedom of the press, the drafting agency has carefully considered the compatibility between the Press Law and other laws such as the Law on Cyber Security, the Law on Advertising, the Penal Code, the Law on Science and Technology, etc. What other laws have stipulated will not be cited again in this law.

Regarding the organizational model, staffing, and staffing of press agencies, the draft Law does not specifically stipulate, because this is content that is not within the scope of the law.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung speaks. Photo: Pham Dong

Will soon build a press development strategy

Regarding the model of key media agencies and multimedia, according to Decision 362/QD-TTg, the country currently has 6 key press agencies.

National Assembly delegates raised the issue of how local press agencies can develop without the need for a "request-grant" mechanism.

According to the Minister, the spirit of the drafting agency is to coordinate with relevant agencies to soon summarize the implementation of this plan, develop a press development strategy, and then report to the competent authority to include it in the Government's Decree. This will fundamentally solve the problem.

"It can be seen that the contents of the delegates' discussions are very relevant. After the meeting, the drafting agency will coordinate with the National Assembly Committees to absorb as much reasonable opinions as possible from the delegates to complete the draft law and report to the National Assembly Standing Committee before submitting it to the National Assembly for consideration and approval," said Minister Nguyen Van Hung.

Concluding this content, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh said that through discussion, many delegates emphasized the need to continue institutionalizing the Party's viewpoints and policies to overcome limitations and shortcomings, meet practical requirements, and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of the press.

At the same time, delegates focused on analyzing and giving in-depth comments on many major contents and policy groups such as press development policy and conditions for ensuring resources for implementation;

Issues related to the autonomy mechanism, revenue sources and social responsibility of the press, the model of a key multimedia media agency, criteria, financial mechanisms and management authority;

On the subjects, conditions for granting and revoking press operation licenses, on press activities in cyberspace, especially cross-border platform management, protection of copyright and national information sovereignty, and requirements for digital transformation in press operations.

The National Assembly Standing Committee will direct the agency in charge of the review, the drafting agency and relevant agencies to synthesize, research and absorb all opinions expressed in the hall and in groups.

From there, build a report to explain, absorb and complete the draft Press Law (amended) to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and approval in early December.

Laodong.vn

Source: https://laodong.vn/thoi-su/tap-trung-thao-go-nhung-diem-nghen-nay-sinh-sau-8-nam-thi-hanh-luat-bao-chi-1615000.ldo