Journey of service… Dedication, responsibility and reaching the truth are the professional spirit of many outstanding writers last year. With the spirit of “service”, journalists have overcome and overcome difficulties and temptations… to produce quality journalistic works, spreading a source of positive energy for the coming new year. |
Most recently, in 2023, Hoang Chien and his colleagues made a strong impression when they excellently won the B Prize of the fourth National Press Award for preventing and combating corruption and negativity. And behind each work is an arduous journey of dedication to justice...
3 years of work, set foot in all 63 provinces and cities
Receiving a ticket from the College of Radio and Television 1 (Phu Ly - Ha Nam), when he started his student life, Hoang Chien rode his bicycle many kilometers to travel here and there to write news articles. Many times he cycled more than 30km from Phu Ly to Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh just to write a news article... At that time, with the royalties, Hoang Chien saved enough to buy a camera, computer, and motorbike to work after graduation. He also earned enough money to study at the Faculty of Journalism, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi).
Talking about the fate that brought him to investigative journalism - a dangerous job, Hoang Chien shared: "After graduating, I was introduced by journalist Do Doan Hoang to work at the Communications Department of the Center for People and Nature (PanNature). My job was to find topics, make plans, and invite journalists to participate in business trips on the topics of natural resources, environment, climate change, economic development projects such as hydropower, industrial parks, etc. It was on these business trips that I had the opportunity to visit all 63 provinces and cities across the country within just 3 years of work, some years with 20 flights, some lasting 21 days, even driving across Vietnam with journalists to investigate."
Journalist Hoang Chien and his colleagues on an investigative trip to conduct a series of articles "Crime under the green forest canopy: The door is closed but the inside is still empty" in the thousand-year-old primeval Pơ mu forest located on the top of Zi'lieng mountain, Tay Giang district (Quang Nam).
In October 2020, Hoang Chien officially transferred to the Readers' Committee of Nong Thon Ngay Nay Newspaper/Dan Viet Electronic Newspaper. He recalled his first work published in Dan Viet Electronic Newspaper about deforestation in Bac Kan, which received praise from the agency's leaders at the weekly meeting.
At the new agency, Hoang Chien and his colleagues conducted a series of investigative articles on topics ranging from wildlife trafficking, deforestation, mining, to hot social issues at that time such as insurance fraud, three-phase electricity trading...
“ After finishing this series, we will do another topic, even in parallel. When published, the works will have a social impact, change policies at both the central and local levels, help the disadvantaged, and reflect the bad things and mistakes of individuals and organizations that violate the law. The overall meaning is that we always want to express humanity and creativity in each of our works...” - Hoang Chien shared.
Investigative topics are often extremely thorny, topical, have social influence, and have many new and different points. According to journalist Hoang Chien, to do well in such difficult and dangerous topics, health and knowledge are the most important things. Health to conduct fieldwork such as going into the forest, crossing rivers and streams with recording and filming equipment that must be compact, sophisticated, and of good quality. Knowledge to build information sources from reliable and solid bases before going on an investigation... "Especially the ability to analyze situations, respond to situations quickly and skillfully, and the art of working with related units" - Hoang Chien said.
So has Hoang Chien ever felt afraid? He pondered and said: " We determined to take the plunge to approach and learn about the matter. If we say we are afraid, it is not entirely correct, but if we are not afraid, it is not entirely correct either."
Hoang Chien said that there were trips to approach characters and infiltrate illegal activities. Even though they had prepared very carefully, when they met experienced subjects, they only needed to ask the reporter playing the role a few questions to know whether they were professionals or not.
“ When we were doing the series “Slicing up” the Dong Van Stone Plateau, a business owner specializing in construction and road construction asked questions that we had never thought of because they were deeply related to their construction and construction techniques. We had a hard time, blushing to get out of it. Every time like that, we often told each other to “come up with a number” quickly, changing the conversation to the content we knew well. Or like when a young person in our group, born in 1997, pretended to be born in 1992, the subject asked back, “What year is 1992?” If we didn’t answer correctly, they would know we were lying,” Hoang Chien recounted.
Contribute and give more…
Journalist Hoang Chien has many journalistic works that reflect many "hot" events, through which violations are resolved, contributing to changing the lives of the people and society, bringing many great awards to him and his colleagues. Talking about the brainchild that makes him feel most proud, Hoang Chien recalls the works when he first graduated, at that time investigative journalism was something very strange to him. When he had not yet found a job, Hoang Chien was invited by a friend to write an article, the work was called "Undercurrents at the Foot of Tam Dao" published in the Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper and "Evisceration of the National Park" published in the Lao Dong Newspaper, the content was about the situation of mine blasting in the core area of Tam Dao National Park.
Hoang Chien recalled that to make the work, he walked all day, ate dry food, and drank spring water, because he had just graduated and had no money. "After a day of traveling, when we returned, we could not walk anymore and had to be carried by someone," Hoang Chien confided.
Or the work “Bitter taste” from the Sweet mine” published in Lao Dong Newspaper reflects the locality in Phu Tho where there is a kaolin mine called Sweet mine, during the exploitation process it affects the water source, fields, tea hills, bananas... of the surrounding people. To capture the image, Hoang Chien had to climb several hills, wade through several streams to reach the production area to record.
“ Then the work “Elephant Mountain’s belly” in Yen Bai, we were students playing the role of buying gemstones when they were illegally mining in the protected forest, at that time we were using “brick” phones that couldn’t film or take pictures, we had to use cameras to take pictures, we pretended to hug each other then the person sitting behind slipped the camera through the gap between the two buttons of the person sitting in front, stuck the lens out to take pictures, and called the gemstone buyer by calling the 900 switchboard and “talking nonsense”… ” - Hoang Chien laughed and said.
The first investigative journalism works that Hoang Chien is most proud of, because at that time, it was the dedication, the struggle, the fighting of a passionate youth, although still immature and confused - those are also the memories that he can never forget. And many of those young works met the high quality requirements, as soon as they were published, they had a great impact, the Government issued a document directing localities to take action.
“ If you were given one wish right now, what kind of Hoang Chien would you wish to be? ” I asked.
“ I myself have no limits to my wishes. Because from the time I was a student sitting on the school bench until now, looking back, I have no regrets, but I am proud of what I have done and am doing. Because during the past time, I have devoted my time, effort, and knowledge to contributing to journalism, and I will contribute even more with the goal of helping society, my family, and myself. And I wish I could always be a Hoang Chien like the current Hoang Chien… ” - journalist Hoang Van Chien expressed.
Hoa Giang
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