According to Deputy Minister of Information and Communications TruongMinh Tuan, a plan is in place to build a more professional and modernjournalism sector, meeting the information needs of people and servingnational construction, defence and development as well as internationalintegration.
The plan, which is scheduled to be approved in April, also aims for better management of the sector, he said.
Accordingly, the ministry will suspend the licensing of new pressagencies while reviewing existing ones in order to shut down any thatfail to follow their registered principles and intentions, he said.
Deputy Minister Tuan underscored that the re-organisation of pressagencies is needed to enhance the quality of the agencies and develop astrong multimedia communications network.
Currently,Vietnam has 838 press agencies, including 199 print publications,67 radio and television stations and 17,000 licensed reporters, henoted.
Assessing the performance of the nationalpress in recent years, he said strong, positive and rapid progress hasbeen seen in successfully publicising the Party and State’s policies andlaws and the aspirations of the people.
The presshas played an important role in fighting corruption and other socialevils, making significant contributions to national development andinternational integration, said Tuan.
Particularly,the press has been active in the protection of national sovereignty overborders and sea and island territory and created social consensus, hespecified.
The deputy minister also noted that thepress has provided overseas Vietnamese around the world with an accurateand clear insight into the nation and people of contemporary Vietnam, as well as the policies and laws of the Party and State.
This has helped win the support of the Vietnamese communityabroad and international partners, particularly in national growth, heemphasised.
However, Tuan also pointed out some ofthe sector’s shortcomings, including the poor quality of some agencies, aworrying trend towards the commercialisation of news and a lack ofcaution in professional practices, leading to inaccurate informationoccasionally being published.
He urged the sector tofurther promote its role and responsibilities in leading socialopinion, rejecting inaccurate reporting from biased sources andfulfilling its tasks as a forum for people from all walks of life.-VNA