Hanoi (VNA) – Head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information, Education and Mass Mobilisation Trinh Van Quyet visited and congratulated the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) in Hanoi on June 18 ahead of the 101st anniversary of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press Day (June 21), wishing that the agency would continue to strengthen solidarity, foster a spirit of dedication, and push harder for the Party’s revolutionary cause.
In his speech, Quyet said the Vietnamese revolutionary press has long been a core force delivering the Party’s guidelines and policies to the public, stoking patriotism, self-reliance and the aspiration for national independence across revolutionary periods. It is also conveying the Party and State’s major messages, orientations, and policies in the current cause of national construction and defence.
The VNA was singled out for its role as the leading multimedia agency and national news provider, acting as the primary information source that feeds the rest of the press corps and anchors coverage of the Party and nation’s major political events.
Quyet noted that in recent meetings with the press, Party and State leaders have acknowledged the enormous contribution of Vietnam’s revolutionary press to the Party and the nation. After the successful 14th National Party Congress, key media outlets rushed to spread the Party’s guidelines and strategic resolutions to the public and international audiences, all while projecting Vietnamese culture and national identity.
The revolutionary press, he went on, remains uniquely placed to amplify Party and State leaders’ messages, shore up great national unity, and create momentum for strategic national tasks. On this front, the VNA not only delivers on its domestic information mission but also transmits Vietnamese culture, spirit and identity abroad, helping win international support for Vietnam’s revolutionary path.
Facing new challenges reshaping the media landscape, he insisted that press agencies must be politically and ideologically strong, professionally sharp, and able to master sci-tech, innovation and digital transformation to meet the demands of the new era.
The Politburo’s decision to designate key press agencies as public service units under the Party Central Committee is both a major honour and a heavier responsibility, while also lifting their status and operating conditions, he said, adding that recent practice shows markedly better communication effectiveness that has won public approval.
To be fit for what lies ahead, he urged the VNA to redouble its political and ideological education, cement journalists’ political convictions, and keep faith in the Party’s leadership, the institutional system and the new development landscape, while insulating themselves from the market economy’s negative pull.
He also pushed for more professional training and an environment in which journalists, editors and staff can make full use of their talents to meet domestic and international reporting demands. The VNA should upgrade infrastructure and technical systems, modernise its journalism platforms, and race to adopt sci-tech, innovation, artificial intelligence and digital transformation, both to lift the quality and punch of its output, especially online, and stiffen the fight against hostile and distorted claims.
VNA General Director Vu Viet Trang, who is also deputy head of the commission, said the revolutionary press must do more than deliver fast news; it must shape information flows, spread positive values, bolster public trust and defend the Party’s ideological foundation. However much technology and journalism methods change, the VNA remains fixed on its mission to provide official, reliable information in service of the nation and its people, she said.
She noted that over the past nearly 80 years, generations of VNA journalists have been on the ground wherever events unfolded, from wartime battlefields to hotspots and disaster zones, tracking real-life developments and actively countering false and hostile allegations in cyberspace. That valuable tradition, she added, is one VNA continues to preserve.
Technology may speed up, but journalists must control the narrative to ensure journalism develops in the right direction and contributes to a healthy, humane, and modern society, she added.
Invoking the legacy of a news agency that has been awarded the title of Hero three times, she pledged that its staff will keep reinventing themselves, strengthen their political resilience and professional competence, master technology, and deliver on their mission in the digital age./.
