VNA General Director Nguyen Duc Loi speaks at the ceremony (Photo: VNA) The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) celebrated the 55th founding anniversary of its former southern affiliate during wartime, the Liberation Press Agency (LPA), with a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on October 12.
The celebration was attended by former Politburo member and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, Vice Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Hoang Quan, and over 400 active and former reporters and workers of the VNA’s southern office.
In his speech, VNA General Director Nguyen Duc Loi recalled that the LPA aired the first radio news bulletin in the Chang Riec forest of Tay Ninh province on October 12, 1960.
During the following 15 years of fierce struggles against the US, LPA reporters weathered hardships to swiftly update warfare-related news and photos from across the south, helping encourage the entire army and people in the fight for national liberation.
On May 12, 1976 – one year after Vietnam was reunited, the LPA was merged with the VNA, which has since been the official organ of the Party and State, he said, adding that his agency has reflected the domestic political, social, economic and cultural situation as well as world news in an accurate, timely and comprehensive fashion.
He stressed VNA employees will continue to uphold the glorious tradition and earn its place as the strategic news service of the Party and State, building the organisation into a multimedia group and a strong news agency in the region and the world at large.
On this occasion, the VNA’s southern office unveiled an LPA-themed exhibition hall and opened a display of news photos taken by VNA southern reporters.
On October 11, a VNA delegation offered incense to heroic martyr-reporters at the LPA monument in Tay Ninh province’s Lo Go – Xa Mat National Park, where the LPA was headquartered.-VNA
