Delegate Pham Van Hoa (Dong Thap) raised the issue of whether the negative situation of reporters and editors in recent times is due to the explosion of specialized newspapers and magazines, leading to low professional quality, going far from the purpose and objectives, and violating the law.
Delegates asked Minister Nguyen Manh Hung to clarify the cause of the above situation and provide solutions to create healthy competition between online advertising and traditional information?
Delegate Nguyen Dai Thang (Hung Yen) asked the Minister of Information and Communications to state the causes and solutions to overcome the situation where some press units exploit the negative aspects of agencies, organizations and businesses with signs of profiteering. The delegate said that it is necessary to ensure that the press adheres to its principles and purposes to promote socio-economic development in the new era - the era of national development.
Regarding the negative issues of reporters, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said: "We can see this." He shared that in 2018, when he took on the role of Minister of Information and Communications, he read an assessment of professional prestige, and reporters were ranked 9th out of 10 surveyed occupational groups.
The Minister emphasized that the ethics of journalists have received a lot of attention in recent years. In 2022, this organization conducted a survey of those 10 occupational groups again, and reporters ranked 3rd after teachers and doctors.
Giving the reason, he said that in the press economy, when 80% of online advertising previously belonged to the press, it now "fell" to social networks, meaning that the advertising revenue of press agencies has decreased significantly.
In 2023, the Prime Minister issued a Directive on policy communication, which determined that authorities at all levels must consider policy communication as their task, and annually "order" the press, which is an additional source for the press to implement the press economy.
The Minister said that the press must also change technology. He informed that there is a national transformation strategy for the press to bring press technology on par with social platforms.
However, the Minister affirmed that the most important issue is still the ethics of journalists.
“In fact, the income of reporters at press agencies is not low compared to that of officials and civil servants. Many press agencies have an income of 15-20 million, lower than that of media enterprises, but higher than that of civil servants and public employees,” the Minister stated.
Acknowledging that the issue of press ethics has not received much attention for many years, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung affirmed that the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Information and Communications, and the Journalists Association determined that in this term, they will focus on professional ethics for reporters.
Responding to questions from delegate Nguyen Dai Thang, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said that in 2023-2024, 14-15 reporters and collaborators were arrested each year, "people in the profession are also heartbroken". The Minister said that compared to the team of 45,000 journalists, of whom 21,000 have press cards, this is "a rotten apple spoiling the barrel".
The minister also said that 80% of the arrested reporters came from small magazines of professional social organizations, where there was lax management.
Regarding the solution to "not turn newspapers into magazines" and operate in accordance with the principles, the Minister shared that the first thing the Ministry of Information and Communications should do is announce the criteria to identify what is turned into newspapers into magazines and post it publicly on the media for the whole society to monitor.
When organizing inspections and checks, based on this criterion, the competent authorities also rely on this criterion to evaluate "whether their press agency has signs of violations or not".
The Ministry of Information and Communications also publicly discloses the principles and purposes of 880 press agencies on information portals so that any individual or organization can look them up. “When a reporter is sent, they will ask if the principles and purposes are correct. If they are not correct, they have the right to refuse. If they are pressured, there is a hotline to report,” the Minister stated.
The Ministry of Information and Communications has also affirmed that it has upgraded more departments in inspecting, examining and supervising magazines. “We have some new regulations, if a reporter of a press agency is arrested, the responsibility of the editor-in-chief must be considered. Previously, only the press agency was dealt with, now the editor-in-chief and the reporter who violated the law are directly dealt with,” said Minister Nguyen Manh Hung.
According to the Minister of Information and Communications, the Vietnam Journalists Association has issued regulations on professional ethics for journalists. “Over and over again, the story of journalistic ethics is still a story that needs attention because journalism is a very special profession. A voice, a sentence, a word of theirs can impact millions of people or spread to millions of people. And therefore, the standards must also be very special,” the Minister explained.
The Minister said that the current Press Law stipulates standards for reporters that are "not very high", so in the upcoming revision of the Press Law, the Minister hopes that the National Assembly will consider allowing the standards for reporters to be raised.
The Government agreed on 4 policy groups when amending the Press Law.
Proposal to reduce income tax on press to 10%
Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Education Nguyen Dac Vinh said that the Committee has worked with the Ministry of Information and Communications and agreed to propose a general income tax rate for the press of 10% as currently applied to printed newspapers.
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