Former Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop: Journalism is a profession forever

Dr. Le Doan Hop emphasized that journalists must be very knowledgeable about reality.

Dr. Le Doan Hop, former member of the Party Central Committee, former Minister of Information and Communications, had a talk on "Culture and behavioral culture of journalists" with officials, reporters, and employees of Hai Duong Newspaper. His heartfelt sharing about journalism and journalistic culture was very profound.

Cultural Measure

According to Dr. Le Doan Hop, the Vietnamese press has 5 advantages that make journalists more committed to and love their profession. The press in our country is developing very quickly, in terms of quantity, quality, form, staff, and technology. The Vietnamese press is converging and integrating deeply into the international community. The press is contributing to promoting social progress and economic development. The press participates in preventing corruption and social evils. In particular, the Vietnamese press is becoming younger, intellectualized, and professionalized.

With the experience of a long-time press manager, press activities, cultural research and management, drawing from practice, former Minister Le Doan Hop also expressed the most worrying issue for him today is the many manifestations of social ethics and culture going down. Therefore, we must pay attention to social ethics and culture, including the role of the press.

He recalled that at a conference summarizing the culture and information sector, many delegates raised the question “what is a cultured person and what criteria should be established to determine a cultured person?”. With the responsibility of the head of the culture and information sector, he proposed three measures to determine a cultured person. These are behavioral culture, intellectual culture and material culture.

According to former Minister Le Doan Hop, a person with good behavior culture is one who makes everyone feel comfortable wherever he goes and wherever he appears. From behavioral culture, it is necessary to raise intellectual culture. "A person with intellectual culture is shy when first meeting, happy to talk, but when parting, he looks forward to the day he meets again," he said.

The third measure, material culture, according to the former Minister, a cultured person is someone who always enjoys the fruits of his own labor.

Must keep press card

From concerns about social and cultural ethics, former Minister Le Doan Hop affirmed that the relationship between "virtue and talent" is the foundation of culture. From ancient times to the present, the standard for officials is still the two words "virtue and talent".

"I advise journalists that if they have the will, they should read books and should read three types of books. One is books about famous people. Two is history books, first of all, the history of the Vietnamese people. If you study Uncle Ho, you should read the history of all related countries. Third is books related to economics and politics combined with philosophy to write correctly," he advised journalists.

According to Dr. Le Doan Hop, in the 4.0 era, virtue and talent must be equally valued. In virtue there must be talent, in talent there must be virtue. To be a person one must have virtue, and to be a cadre, party member, reporter, or editor one must have talent.

Dr. Le Doan Hop talks with officials and reporters of Hai Duong Newspaper

The former Minister of Information and Communications affirmed that journalism is a profession forever. According to him, there are three reasons for this affirmation. First, democracy needs the press, the press is democracy of class, the press is intellectual democracy, democracy in general must have the press to lead and guide. Second, international integration forever needs the press, the press both opens the way and ends it, both finds lessons and finds causes. Third, all ruling parties need the press, the press is a tool, not only for leadership but also for micro and macro management.

He emphasized that journalists "can write however they want but must keep their press card, if they lose their card, they will lose their job". Journalists write with the goal of making people like them but must be consistent with the Party's wishes, and Hai Duong Newspaper must consider itself a Party newspaper. In particular, journalists must maintain "political sensitivity" in their profession. A journalist is a politician, not a mere professional. What can be said and done to demonstrate political courage? Their own interests are the interests of Hai Duong province, the interests of the people. Therefore, journalists must be very knowledgeable about reality, write about what is certain, and do not write about what is not certain. Political sensitivity is also the culture of journalism.

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