The award ceremony (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – A total of 70 best works of the National External Information Service Awards 2015 were honoured at a ceremony in Hanoi on May 28.
There are six first prize winners, 13 second prize winners, 18 third prize winners, and 33 consolation prize holders in five categories: print newspaper, online newspaper, radio broadcasting, television broadcasting and press photo.
This is the second time the awards have been organized by the Party Central Committee’s Information and Education Commission and the Central Steering Committee for External Information Services.
The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) submitted 181 entries this year, of which 15 won prizes.
The work “August-September 1945, the historic turning point of the Vietnamese nation” by Huu Ngoc from the VNA’s French-language newspaper Le Courrier du Vietnam, and the multi-media work “Vietnam’s development after 70 years” by a group of reporters from VNA’s electronic newspaper VietnamPlus won two first prizes.
As the only news agency in Vietnam, the VNA has 10 units providing external information services which made the agency the nation’s leading external information channel.
According to the organising board, the awards this year received 737 entries from domestic and foreign press and media agencies, a 43 percent increase from last year.
They included 319 entries in the category of print newspaper, 158 in the category of online newspaper, 56 in radio, 103 in television and 68 in press photo.
The entries were created in 11 languages: Vietnamese, English, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Lao and Bulgarian. Entrants varied remarkably, including professional and amateur journalists from domestic press agencies, foreign journalists, ambassadors, experts, researchers, and Vietnamese expatriates. In particular, there are 15 entrants who are foreign journalists, directors, politicians and scholars.
Entries also came in a great many varieties of genres and contents, which covered all aspects of the country’s political, economic, cultural and social life, and outstanding events in Vietnam, the region and the world in 2015.
They also introduced the great achievements made in the “Doi moi” (Reform) process and national development and defence; promoted images of Vietnamese land, culture, and people to the world; timely and vividly communicated the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies and laws; refuted fabricated information and distorted arguments on Vietnam; and provided detailed information on domestic and international issues of public concern such as sea and island sovereignty, borders and territory, ethnic and religious affairs, democracy and human rights.
Speaking at the awards ceremony , Politburo member and permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat Dinh The Huynh congratulated the individual and group prize winners and declared the second National External Information Service Awards 2015 a success.
He stressed that at present, external information services are benefitting from numerous new opportunities while also facing an array of difficulties and challenges.
Hence, the agencies providing external information services need to continue raising awareness about the importance of the work, regularly renovate and improve the efficiency of the services offered, and push forward with the implementation of the Politburo’s Strategy for the Development of External Information Services in the 2011-2020 period, so as to help promote Vietnam’s prestige and standing, and win over the assistance of the international community and overseas Vietnamese communities, ultimately creating favourable conditions for the cause of national development and defence.
Outstanding works among the prize winning entries will be selected to be published in foreign languages to serve external information work.-VNA
