The Vietnam Press Distributors’ Association (VPDA) has rejected their role in providing the International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) with information on the Vietnam magazine market as published in World Magazine Trends 2009/2010.
The rejection was made public after a wave of protests among Vietnam-based magazine owners against the book’s contents which they said provided misinformation about the publishing market in Vietnam .
The book has quoted the VPDA as the source of information while the association claimed it has never provided any information for FIPP.
VPDA President Dao Duy Quat has contacted FIPP, asking for correction, but FIPP has turned down the request on the ground that it did not bear any responsibility for the accuracy of the published information.
The VPDA document wrote: “(FIPP) should take measures to correct all the above-said misinformation, including the VPDA’s denial of providing the information, and make public the correction on international and Vietnamese mass media on a large scale. Especially, FIPP must officially send letters of correction to Vietnamese and international ad agencies operating in Vietnam , as well as send letters of apology to those magazines which are the victim of the book’s misinformation and have their images marred.”
The book devotes five pages to the Vietnamese press market, saying local commercial magazines have lagged at least five years behind many other regional markets such as China , Indonesia and India .
Vietnam lacks objective statistics to form a ground for measuring the market and advertisers’ confidence, the book says.
The book also publishes statistics on the circulation of over 60 magazines which are much lower than reality. In a written reply to VPDA, FIPP President and CEO Chris Llewllyn said the information came from some VPDA members.
VPDA said the source of information has not yet been checked in line with professional press rules and has been recognised negligently as coming from an organisation which includes a large number of press agencies, it says.
Although FIPP is a reputable and powerful body with members all over the world, it is unpopular in Vietnam . FIPP says it has just three members with Vietnamese publications - IDG Communications of the US that publishes the Vietnamese edition of ‘PC World’, Ringier of Swizerland that runs the ‘Thoi Trang Tre’ (Young Fashion) magazine and Sun Flower Media, the largest magazine publishing house in Vietnam .
All three companies have rejected any role in providing the information for FIPP, according to the Ho Chi Minh City ‘Woman’ newspaper.
Victimized magazines assumed that FIPP has been abused by a certain unit which has provided misinformation to serve its unhealthy competition purpose. Some accused FIPP’s publishing process of being one-sided, unprofessional and not objective.
So far, FIPP has not yet announced the personal identity of the information suppliers.
The incident has been comunicated to press agencies by the VPDA and reported to the Vietnamese press management agencies for treatment./.
The rejection was made public after a wave of protests among Vietnam-based magazine owners against the book’s contents which they said provided misinformation about the publishing market in Vietnam .
The book has quoted the VPDA as the source of information while the association claimed it has never provided any information for FIPP.
VPDA President Dao Duy Quat has contacted FIPP, asking for correction, but FIPP has turned down the request on the ground that it did not bear any responsibility for the accuracy of the published information.
The VPDA document wrote: “(FIPP) should take measures to correct all the above-said misinformation, including the VPDA’s denial of providing the information, and make public the correction on international and Vietnamese mass media on a large scale. Especially, FIPP must officially send letters of correction to Vietnamese and international ad agencies operating in Vietnam , as well as send letters of apology to those magazines which are the victim of the book’s misinformation and have their images marred.”
The book devotes five pages to the Vietnamese press market, saying local commercial magazines have lagged at least five years behind many other regional markets such as China , Indonesia and India .
Vietnam lacks objective statistics to form a ground for measuring the market and advertisers’ confidence, the book says.
The book also publishes statistics on the circulation of over 60 magazines which are much lower than reality. In a written reply to VPDA, FIPP President and CEO Chris Llewllyn said the information came from some VPDA members.
VPDA said the source of information has not yet been checked in line with professional press rules and has been recognised negligently as coming from an organisation which includes a large number of press agencies, it says.
Although FIPP is a reputable and powerful body with members all over the world, it is unpopular in Vietnam . FIPP says it has just three members with Vietnamese publications - IDG Communications of the US that publishes the Vietnamese edition of ‘PC World’, Ringier of Swizerland that runs the ‘Thoi Trang Tre’ (Young Fashion) magazine and Sun Flower Media, the largest magazine publishing house in Vietnam .
All three companies have rejected any role in providing the information for FIPP, according to the Ho Chi Minh City ‘Woman’ newspaper.
Victimized magazines assumed that FIPP has been abused by a certain unit which has provided misinformation to serve its unhealthy competition purpose. Some accused FIPP’s publishing process of being one-sided, unprofessional and not objective.
So far, FIPP has not yet announced the personal identity of the information suppliers.
The incident has been comunicated to press agencies by the VPDA and reported to the Vietnamese press management agencies for treatment./.
