Policy Communication - The Power of the Press With the ability to create a forum for dialogue and policy criticism, the press and media create a bridge between the policy issuer and the policy beneficiaries. The media increasingly participates fully in all stages of the policy process, the effectiveness and positive impact of policies in practice are increasingly enhanced. How policy communication activities are carried out in our country and how effective they are are the issues discussed in this topic. |
Doing good policy communication work will open up great resources.
In recent times, the press has truly become the main channel for policy communication. In particular, the press has proactively and promptly informed and disseminated the directions and administration of the National Assembly in legislative work, supervision, and law enforcement; of the Government, the Prime Minister, ministries, branches, and localities in all aspects, contributing to accelerating the speed of recovery and socio-economic development in a bold and profound manner.
According to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, policy communication plays a very important role and significance, and is one of the functions and tasks of the Government, ministries, government agencies, and localities in the process of implementing political tasks. Doing a good job of policy communication will open up great resources, creating great strength and high efficiency in policy making and implementation.
According to the Prime Minister, policy communication work has closely followed reality, respected reality, taken reality as a measure, been carried out more openly, transparently, proactively, promptly, with many creative, innovative, highly effective ways, suitable to the content of propaganda, situation, conditions and context of each agency, locality and unit; contributed significantly to bringing legal policies into life and bringing life into the policy-making process, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of policies, thereby unifying awareness, will and action in implementation, creating high consensus in society.
Realizing that in the context of the current information explosion, policy communication work needs to be focused on, improving professionalism in the entire system of state administrative agencies, contributing to creating consensus, improving efficiency and effectiveness in policy implementation; recently, on March 21, 2023, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha signed Directive No. 07/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister on strengthening policy communication work.
According to the Directive, the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to proactively innovate communication methods and forms of providing information to the press to ensure publicity, transparency and to meet the information needs of press agencies and journalists. Strengthen closer, more timely and effective coordination between ministries, branches and agencies working on policy communication.
Pay attention to arranging, organizing, training, and improving the capacity and qualifications of the team doing policy communication work to ensure that it is suitable for the requirements of the task. Arrange officers in charge of policy communication work in ministries, branches, and localities. Develop an annual communication plan and flexibly implement communication activities from the time of policy planning, development, completion, issuance, and implementation; arrange a policy communication department to participate in giving opinions and criticism during the process of policy development and implementation.
Along with that, research the ordering and assignment of tasks to media and press agencies to carry out policy communication tasks in accordance with the requirements and regulations of the law...
In 2022, according to the General Statistics Office, for the first time, Vietnam's GDP reached 409 billion USD. GDP is estimated to increase by 8.02% compared to the previous year due to the economic recovery and reaching the highest growth rate in the period 2011 - 2022.
To achieve the above important achievements, it is thanks to the participation of the entire political system, the timely, drastic and close direction and management of the Government, the Prime Minister and the efforts of all levels, sectors, localities and the business community. In particular, the press plays an important role in policy communication, as a bridge between state management agencies and people and businesses.
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh - Economic expert, the press has become one of the useful information channels for businesses, helping businesses access economic management policies faster and more effectively, including policies on support regimes of state management agencies for businesses in the national economy.
Specifically, many policies to support businesses and improve the business environment issued by authorities are not suitable for the practical context, making it difficult for businesses to access. However, through the reflection of press agencies, businesses have been able to express their thoughts and aspirations.
From there, policy-making agencies have adjusted policies to better suit the realities and needs of businesses, making it easier for businesses to access policy support packages and the policies and guidelines of the Party and State. Through the press, policies have become closer to businesses and environmental realities.
It can be seen that, in the new context, the role of the press in policy communication is especially valued by the Party and the State. Because effective policy communication contributes to solving the long-standing internal problems of the economy that any country in the transition process encounters and basically responds appropriately and effectively to newly arising problems, so that people understand and share with the Party, State and Government.
Increase criticality in journalism, not rigidity and mechanism
With the ability to create a forum for dialogue and policy criticism, the press and media create a bridge between the policy issuer and the policy beneficiaries. In particular, the role of the press in monitoring and criticizing is very important and has been recognized by our Party and State.
According to experts, strengthening the role of the press in monitoring and social criticism is extremely necessary, especially at the present stage, when the entire Party and people are focusing on promoting the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country.
Along with that, the critical nature of the press has had many positive impacts on industry management activities as well as operations and stabilization of the country's socio-economic situation in general.
For example, recently, many legal documents of ministries and branches have impractical regulations (such as: regulations that livestock and poultry meat cannot be sold more than 8 hours after slaughter, regulations prohibiting the sale of beer on sidewalks, etc.) when submitted for public opinion and press criticism, many ministries and branches had to make adjustments by withdrawing or editing the documents.
At the conference on Continuing to implement Directive 11 of the Politburo, actively innovating, improving orientation capacity, propaganda effectiveness associated with purchasing, reading, and following the Party's newspapers and magazines (morning of April 10, 2023). Mr. Nguyen Trong Nghia - Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Propaganda Department said that in order to attract people's attention, the Party's newspapers and magazines need to closely follow real life, truthfully, objectively, and vividly reflect the lives of people of all walks of life in many fields.
“If we only see the rosy side, the beautiful numbers but not the dark side, the hardships of the locality, it is not good. There must be objectivity, there must be subjectivity, from there create motivation for us to overcome difficulties,” Mr. Nghia clearly stated.
The Head of the Central Propaganda Department also acknowledged that at an event, each press agency with different purposes will have different writing orientations, and ways of posing issues from different angles, thereby creating diversity in press activities. Therefore, Mr. Nghia suggested that local Propaganda Departments need to develop strategic orientations for newspapers, in order to create richness, multi-dimensionality, and increase criticality in the press, rather than being rigid and mechanical.
Quoc Tran
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