Journalist Nguyen Uyen - Former Head of the Association's Working Committee - Vietnam Journalists Association: Must be serious about self-examination, self-correction, self-cultivation and training
For more than 60 years in journalism, I have always kept in mind the profound teachings of my beloved Uncle Ho for the press and for Vietnamese journalists. I always study to thoroughly understand and follow his words: “Doing journalism is doing revolution... Journalists are also soldiers” ...
Vietnamese journalists have always been trusted by the Party, loved by the people, and respected by society throughout the nation's glorious journey because they always obey Uncle Ho and the Party, and always reflect on their own professional ethics. The Vietnamese press is always happy, proud, and honored with the miracles of humane, positive, and healthy propaganda in the struggle to build new, good things for people, society, and the country...
Journalist Nguyen Uyen.
We are truly sad and angry at journalists who violate ethics and the law because of their personal cowardice; especially the recent "money-making" cases. Not to mention the "stabbing and teasing" stories, threatening businessmen and enterprises for personal gain; inconsistent writing and speaking; writing for print is different, but the information on social networks is like a degenerate hooligan... Even though they are individuals, few, the loss of credibility with the Vietnamese press is not small. The press cannot be left alone, the Journalists Association cannot let it go. Press agencies absolutely cannot have such elements in the editorial office. The law needs to be considered, severely punished to deter!...
To truly “Do journalism is to do revolution” , “Journalists are also soldiers” , journalists must follow Uncle Ho’s example of revolutionary ethics throughout their lives: Loyal to the country, filial to the people; love people; be diligent, frugal, honest, upright, impartial; have a pure international spirit. Only then will journalism be humane, positive and healthy, keeping up with the times. To do so, journalists must definitely have a beautiful heart and bright virtues. The heart is the soul of a person. The heart is consciousness, the center of feelings, emotions, consciousness and actions. Emotions and consciousness are the roots that give birth to the heart. The heart gives birth to good things, but also gives rise to bad things... Following the good, the good, the virtuous is a bright heart, a pure heart (As journalist Huu Tho once said)...
Therefore, to be a journalist, one must have a profession and a beautiful heart in order to bring good things to oneself, to people and to society... Along with the heart is virtue. Virtue refers to the value and character of a person. Dao is the path, virtue is good character. Morality is a person with beauty in life and soul, in lifestyle and actions.
A journalist with ethics will know how to be in control, always understand what he has to do when working and writing news articles... Absolutely do not lie, say wrong things; do not fabricate, seek personal gain; do not let bad people take advantage to do wrong things... Therefore, if you want to have good ethics, you must constantly practice. You must be serious about self-examination, self-correction, self-cultivation, and practice following the moral example of the beloved revolutionary journalism teacher Ho Chi Minh, saying goes with doing, building goes with fighting. That means you must spend your whole life practicing, cultivating, and fostering human ethics and professional ethics of Vietnamese journalism. Of course, this is also a not small responsibility from the place that trains journalists, the place that employs journalists, the Journalists Association and the Vietnam Journalists Association!
Mr. Dang Khac Loi - Deputy Director of the Press Department - Ministry of Information and Communications: Maintaining revolutionary character - urgent task, top priority
It can be seen that President Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on the press and journalists show that the responsibility of the press is very heavy but it is an extremely glorious task. In fact, throughout its development, the press has made significant contributions to the cause of fighting for national independence, building and defending the Fatherland, and developing the country's economy and society. However, somewhere in the team of journalists, there are still "bad apples spoiling the barrel" , taking advantage of the prestige of the press agency, taking advantage of the name "journalist" to achieve personal goals, causing public outrage.
In particular, as social networks become increasingly popular, some people who are or have worked in press agencies have shown signs of "deviation" when speaking on the internet. And even in press agencies, there are still some editorial offices that have not strictly implemented regulations in their operations, have not strictly controlled content, and have posted unverified, false, "sensational" information, and clickbait information. These violations have been detected and handled in many forms, from warnings to administrative sanctions; there are even journalists whose press cards have been revoked and criminally prosecuted for serious violations. These are truly sad and regrettable things!
Mr. Dang Khac Loi.
Obviously, the press must “examine and correct itself” , must strive to maintain its revolutionary character, maintain its core values and mission. This is an urgent task, which press agencies must give top priority to in the current context. To ensure the ideological, educational and combative nature of the press, the heads of units and journalists themselves must resolutely fight against manifestations that deviate from the principles, purposes and political stance of revolutionary journalism.
One thing that is very difficult but must be done seriously in the current context is that newsrooms must firmly oppose the trend of commercialization and the pursuit of profit. The "front" of journalists in the current context is wider and more complicated due to the strong development of the internet and social networks. The task of combating the phenomenon of exploiting the press and freedom of speech to reveal state secrets, incite public opinion, etc. has become urgent. The press also has the responsibility to expose and defeat all ideological sabotage plots of hostile forces.
At the same time, the press must actively promote the image of the country and the achievements in all aspects of the renovation process... Studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style, implementing Uncle Ho's advice on journalism, making the country's press always worthy of being a forum for the people, the voice of the Party and the State in the new conditions, the team of journalists today must determine the spirit of continuous learning and training to improve their qualifications and skills in journalism and maintain the purity of professional ethics, actively contributing to serving the renovation and development of the country.
Mr. Nguyen Manh Tuan - Deputy Head of the Inspection Committee - Vietnam Journalists Association:
Need to get involved with a serious and decisive attitude
Mr. Nguyen Manh Tuan.
In recent times, it can be said that never before has the issue of journalistic ethics and professional ethics of journalists become such a hot issue, attracting the attention and concern of not only genuine journalists but also the whole society, the reading public, and those who place absolute trust in the noble mission of journalists.
Through monitoring press activities and from the feedback of press units through inspection and supervision work, I believe that there are several main reasons as follows: First: Some press agencies, especially magazines, have not strictly implemented legal regulations related to the press field, continuing to loosen management work, correspondents, especially office reporters, representatives, and residents, not seriously implementing Decision No. 979/QD-HNBVN dated April 6, 2018 on the activities of members who are resident reporters of local press agencies.
Second: Some press agencies still have the phenomenon of assigning advertising revenue to reporters and resident agencies. In the context of businesses facing difficulties after the COVID-19 pandemic, they are not able to sponsor or advertise for press agencies as before, leading to the phenomenon that in order to complete the quota set by the editorial office, they are forced to violate the law and professional ethics.
Third: When organizations and business units are threatened or harassed by reporters, they are very hesitant and do not dare to report to the authorities for fear that these subjects will continue to obstruct and affect the normal operations of the business.
Fourth: The leadership role of party organizations, political organizations, and professional socio-political organizations in press agencies is still vague. The dissemination and education of law and professional ethics is not serious and is still formalistic. Some levels of the Association have not established a Council to handle violations of professional ethics, and have not paid due attention to members' participation in social networks, leading to the phenomenon of members expressing opinions on social networks that are contrary to their opinions in press works.
Fifth: The awareness of social responsibility and civic duty of a part of journalists is still very limited. A part of reporters consider journalism as just a means to make money, disregard the self-respect, honor, and reputation of journalism and journalists, abuse the profession, and take advantage of the trust of the public and readers for personal gain.
Sixth: Sanctions for violations of the law and professional ethics are still limited and not deterrent enough. Although these violations are isolated, "a rotten apple spoils the barrel" , with the Party and the people's trust in the press, this is truly a pain and a painful wound for the team of journalists.
Therefore, to rectify and push back existing problems of press agencies and clean up the press team, it is necessary to have the serious and decisive participation of management agencies, press associations at all levels, press management agencies, press agency leaders and the personal responsibility of each reporter and journalist...
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Truong Giang – Deputy Director of the Academy of Journalism and Communication:
It is a smear, a smear on our journalism.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Truong Giang.
In the past 10 years, the decline of journalist ethics has been a very prominent issue and recently it has become even more "hot" . A large number of journalists have violated ethics and the law, causing the reputation and public trust in the press to decline significantly.
Compared to the past, the reality of ethical violations has more forms such as: intentionally writing false information, fabricating, lacking objectivity, lacking honesty, reporters running advertisements, forcing establishments, businesses, forcing organizations to sign media contracts, hunting for false information and then bargaining... Even another form is extremely bad that the late journalist Huu Tho used the phrase "beating the council" or "saving the council" when he was still alive...
In an interview with the late journalist Huu Tho, when mentioning the qualities of the head of a press agency, he used a very Huu Tho phrase, which is "The head must be able to smell the article" , meaning holding the article in the hands of his troops and subordinates and being able to "smell" what is the motive and purpose behind it? Or another phenomenon is the newspaperization of magazines, which the Central Propaganda Department, the Vietnam Journalists Association, and the Ministry of Information and Communications have directed and corrected many times in the past but still exists...
I think that this is not just a phenomenon of “one bad apple spoiling the barrel” but also a smearing and smearing of our journalism. The cause of this problem has both objective and subjective causes, from the mechanism, the difficulties and impacts of the market economy, causing each journalist to struggle with “bread and butter” , the editorial offices have to worry about journalism economics… On the one hand, they have to fulfill their obligations and responsibilities in journalism economics, on the other hand, they have to fulfill the political tasks of the profession.
Therefore, this is also a problem that needs to be resolved to create a mechanism to motivate, encourage and protect the press to develop so that journalists can flourish and be creative, and press agencies can be liberated, focusing only on carrying out the extremely noble tasks and missions assigned by the people and society. That is the responsibility to the truth, to the public, to the people. That is the responsibility to the news, the responsibility to the issues of the times...
Dr. Nguyen Tri Thuc - Member of the Executive Committee and Head of the Special Topics and Magazines Department, Communist Magazine:
More severe punishment is needed for journalists and press agencies that repeatedly violate the law.
Dr. Nguyen Tri Thuc.
In fact, the ethical degradation in journalism in particular and journalism in general has been going on for quite a long time, it is not a new issue. However, recently it has been rampant due to the arrests of collaborators, some reporters in some press agencies who have little reputation, little prestige, little position in the press. This violation needs to be condemned, needs to be prevented and eliminated in social life because this will bring bad reputation to the press, will damage the image of the press, will lose prestige, lose the trust of the people, as well as of agencies, units, localities in press activities in particular and the press in general.
In fact, we cannot completely eliminate it, we must have ways to identify, prevent, even isolate, and condemn from the journalism community and society. I think the deepest cause is subjective, objective, but the most important is related to the issue of journalism economy, related to state management. I think we need to tighten and handle more severely journalists and press agencies that repeatedly violate to have a deterrent effect.
We must have stronger measures, even revoke the license of press agencies that have 3 journalists involved in arrests or 3 incidents that cause social discontent, for example. At the same time, we also need to call for the promotion of revolutionary ethics, learning from Uncle Ho, and professional ethics.
In particular, this issue must be resolved in harmony between economic interests and the political tasks of press agencies in particular and the press in general. When the economic issues of journalism have not been resolved, and journalists have not been assured of their work and dedication, there are still many difficulties related to the process of maintaining and nurturing professional ethics during the work process.
Journalist Tran Quang Dai - Lao Dong Newspaper, resident in Nghe An:
Do not compromise or back down to pressure or temptation.
Currently, besides the team of honest journalists who always maintain professional ethics, there are still a number of journalists who violate the law, violate professional ethics, engage in activities of a profit-making nature, take advantage of their profession for personal gain, violate the principles of providing information and speaking on social networks. There has not been a specific survey, but in my opinion, the above phenomenon is quite common, alarming, and unacceptable. The journalism profession today has many pressures as well as many temptations. For violators, they will find ways to pressure, bribe or use many measures and tricks to avoid being reported by the press. Journalists who want to have quality journalistic works and have social impact must of course not compromise or back down before those pressures or temptations. However, in my opinion, this is normal, there is nothing too difficult or something that is a sacrifice. If journalists themselves are clear and determined, those who seek to bribe or pressure will retreat. Because this is a matter of basic principles of professional ethics that anyone entering the profession has grasped. During my professional activities, I have been interfered with, threatened, pressured or bribed many times. However, I always find ways to overcome it because if I compromise or retreat, I will lose myself, lose the trust of readers... It can be said that, like all other social - ideological - professional activities, in the process of operation, besides the positive aspects, there have been negative phenomena, violations, and degradation among journalists. If not promptly corrected and overcome, the violations will become more serious, the reputation of the press will decline, and even lose its role in social life.
Bao Minh (Written)
Source
Comment (0)