Draft of the revised Press Law: Proposal to develop a press corporation model

The Ministry of Information and Communications is seeking public opinions on the draft legal document "Document for proposing the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Press Law".

The Ministry of Information and Communications assesses that the Press Law has quite complete, clear, and detailed regulations, creating favorable conditions for professional press activities, while creating a legal corridor for agencies, organizations, and individuals to understand and cooperate with, and support press agencies and reporters' work.

However, after more than 6 years of implementation in the context of strong and rapid development of science, technology, and modern communications leading to higher requirements and demands in the field of journalism, it is necessary to perfect legal regulations to adjust and manage promptly and appropriately.

The Ministry also believes that some provisions of the Press Law reveal some limitations and inadequacies, failing to meet the practical requirements of press activities.

Therefore, the Ministry of Information and Communications proposed to develop a Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Press Law with 7 policies.

Notably, the first policy mentioned is "Developing the press group model"with the goal of forming large press agencies with sufficient resources to play a leading role, acting as pillars to orient information.

"Add specific regulations to allow the formation of a state-owned press group model, in which a press agency acts as the governing body and affiliated press agencies and enterprises," the proposal clearly states the content of the policy implementation solution.

Regarding the conditions for forming a press group, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications, a press agency can have one or more affiliated press agencies and enterprises.

In addition, the press agency must be an agency under the Government or other agencies and organizations according to the planning approved by the Prime Minister.

Citing the reality in Vietnam, the Ministry of Information and Communications said that currently, Voice of Vietnam (VOV) and Vietnam Television (VTV) are organized according to the press consortium model, including a parent press agency that publishes press products (VOV radio channels, VTV television channels).

In addition, there are subsidiary press agencies under the parent press agency (VTC Digital Television Station, VTV Electronic Newspaper), each unit is managed by a General Director and has its own Editor-in-Chief, and is granted its own press operation license.

In addition to VOV and VTV, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) is also organized according to the consortium model. However, VNA has the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure stipulated in the Government's Decree, both producing press products such as news bulletins and being the governing body of affiliated press agencies such as Vietnamplus e-newspaper, Sports and Culture Newspaper, Tin Tuc Newspaper, Viet Nam News Newspaper...

Thus, VOV, VTV and VNA are special national press agencies under the Government, carrying out important political tasks of the Party and State.

"Up to now, the press group model has never been popular in Vietnam. Other press agencies, besides the three above, are all individual press agencies, usually with 1-2 types (print and electronic).

"They have not yet gathered in the form of large groups and corporations to be able to take advantage of human and material resources to promote large-scale economic development, to have large revenue sources to help increase investment resources in new products, attracting more readers," the management agency assessed.

At the same time, many press agencies in this model encounter many difficulties in their operations due to lack of economic potential and lack of financial autonomy. This is all the more necessary in the context of Vietnamese press facing many challenges regarding financial autonomy in recent years.

Therefore, the Ministry of Information and Communications finds that the selection of the above solution content is appropriate, meeting the requirements of development, forming large press agencies with sufficient resources to play a leading role, acting as a pillar for information orientation.

"The development of the press group model is also a direction to continue implementing the Press Development and Management Plan until 2025 for the governing agencies and localities with many traditional, prestigious press agencies and a leading role in orienting public opinion," the Ministry of Information and Communications emphasized in the submission.

Along with the policy of developing the press group model, in the proposal to build a Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Press Law, the Ministry of Information and Communications also proposed 6 other policies, including: Completing regulations on the scope of information of press agencies to contribute to promoting the effectiveness of press activities and ensuring implementation according to principles and purposes.

Perfecting regulations for scientific journals to develop healthily and properly; Regulations on revoking operating licenses of press agencies.

Supplementing conditions for granting press cards to improve the quality of journalists; Completing regulations on the import of printed newspapers; Exporting audio and visual newspaper content.