The Ministry of Information and Communications and the World Bank jointly held a workshop entitled, “Media, communication and human rights” in Hanoi on Feb. 23.

Participants, including Vietnamese and international journalists and human rights experts, discussed common issues in human rights and human rights reporting.

The workshop aims to provide journalists with a panoramic understanding of human rights and international conventions on human rights in relation to media and communications, and share international experience in media, communications, human rights and human rights reporting.

Addressing the event, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Do Quy Doan said along with the country’s constant development of its socio-economy, Vietnamese media had obtained breakthrough achievements in meeting the needs of the people.

Basing on international standards on human rights, especially press, speech and information freedom, participants agreed that it is necessary to accelerate journalists’ possibilities of approaching information and give more opportunities for people to access information.

They also shared the view that together with accelerating the implementation of human rights, it is necessary to follow legal limitations of press, speech and information freedom within international standards.

Mila Rosenthal, Professor of Human Rights from the New School for Social Research, New York , pointed out those legal limitations: violating national security or public security, and speech which incites racial, religious and national tension, discrimination and violence.

Participants also talked about measures to help media agencies to develop their roles in communications on human rights./.