PM: VNA needs to maintain position as Party, State’s trustworthy information centre
Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the
Vietnam News Agency (VNA) to maintain its position as a trustworthy information
centre of the Party and State and a prestigious news agency in the
region.
During a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the agency in Hanoi on
September 13, PM Phuc lauded generations of the VNA’s leaders, reporters,
technicians and staff for making great contributions to the cause of national
construction and defence. He also expressed his gratitude for its nearly 260
journalist-martyrs, accounting for two-thirds of the country’s total, for
laying down their lives on the mission.
He recalled that historical moments of the nation, covered by VNA’s
journalist-soldiers, became known and supported by the world. Its reporters and
staff were present on almost battlefields, overcame a raft of challenges to
send news and photos about the brave struggle of the nation in a rapid and
objective manner, thus inspiring a strong will to regain national independence
and reunification and creating a motivation for emulation movements
nationwide.
Building on achievements over the past 75 years, the VNA needs to take the
vanguard in information and popularisation work, including disseminating the
Party policies and guidelines, the State laws, contributing to bringing the
Party and National Assembly’s resolutions, the Government’s programmes and
action plans into life, he said.
He added that the VNA also needs to promptly reflect public aspirations, fight
against negative behaviours, wrongful allegations by hostile forces, firmly
safeguard the Party’s ideological foundation, protect the Party and State’s
policies and guidelines as well as territorial sovereignty, maintain
socio-political stability, contributing to orienting public opinions and
strengthening public trust on the Party and State leadership.
He stressed the VNA's immediate significant task of raising public awareness of
the Party congresses at all levels, towards the 13th National Party Congress,
covering opinions of people from walks of life on draft documents and reports
which are to be submitted to the National Party Congress.
He suggested that the VNA should keep its own identity and core value as a
“bank of mainstream information” for the domestic press system and the public
at home and abroad, in service of the Party and State leaders and
think-tanks.
The PM assigned each VNA journalist to keep improving political mettle,
professional skills and knowledge to carry the sector forward, thus deserving
dedication by the past generations for national revolutionary cause.
According to him, the VNA needs to continue adopting technological advances to
develop itself into a modern multimedia agency using digital transformation and
artificial intelligence.
On the occasion, PM Phuc, who is also Chairman of the Emulation – Commendation
Council, presented the first-class Labour Order, to the VNA.
Addressing the ceremony, VNA General Director Nguyen Duc Loi said on September
15, 1945, from the Bach Mai wireless transmission station in Hanoi, the full
text of the Independence Declaration and the list of the members of provisional
Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam were aired in Vietnamese,
English and French. The event marked the birth of a news agency of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam, now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. That was
also the content of the first transmissions by the VNA, known as Vietnam Thong
tan xa (VNTTX) at the time.
After national reunification, in May 1976, realising an instruction by the
Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, the VNTTX and the Liberation News
Agency - the official news organisation run by the South Vietnam National
Liberation Front, which was established on October 12, 1960, merged.
One year later, the National Assembly Standing Committee issued a resolution
approving the change of the Vietnamese name of the agency from “Vietnam Thong
tan xa” into “Thong tan xa Vietnam”.
He affirmed that in any
circumstance, the VNA's information always gear toward the goal of
independence, freedom, peace, national development and people's
well-being.
During the 1980s and 1990s, a
series of dailies and weeklies in Vietnamese and foreign languages debuted and
were welcomed by the public such as Sports & Culture newspaper, Viet Nam
News and Le Courrier du Vietnam.
In the 21st century, the VNA set the target of diversifying transmission
channels and expanding international cooperation. With the birth of electronic
newswire VietnamPlus, television channel VNews, infographic news, 12 bilingual
news and photos for ethnic minorities, megastory published on VietnamPlus, its
app and social media site, the agency’s news have been available to the public
at home and abroad amid digital era.
The VNA’s news units for foreign services have also popularised the image of
Vietnam as an active and responsible member of the international community,
fulfilling mission of a key national press agency for external affairs, he
said.
The General Director informed that the VNA produced a number of high-quality
news products winning awards at home and abroad. This week, its “Say no to Fake
News” project won the top prize in the category “Best Project for News
Literacy” – one of ten categories within the framework of the Asian Digital
Media 2020 Awards presented by WAN-IFRA, the World Association of News
Publishers.
With such great contributions, the VNA was also awarded with a number of Party
and State decorations such as Gold Star Order, Ho Chi Minh Order, Independence
Order, the titles of labour hero in renovation period and hero of people’s
armed forces.
With a contingent of about 2,300 officials, reporters, editors, technicians and
staff in 63 cities and provinces nationwide and 30 key areas in five
continents, the VNA currently provides thousands of news stories, articles and
photos for domestic and foreign media outlets each day, serving the Party and
State leaders and the public with nearly 70 news products in various forms. It
also cooperates with more than 40 press agencies worldwide, making effective
contributions to ties between Vietnam and countries worldwide during Vietnam’s
integration process, he said.
On the occasion, Party
General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong also sent a basket of flowers
and letter of congratulations to the VNA./.