Farewell to the exemplary leader who was constantly concerned with directing press activities

Before becoming a professional revolutionary, comrade Nguyen Phu Trong was appointed by the Politburo as Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine - the leading political theory magazine of our Party in the early 1990s.

Later, after leaving the Communist Magazine, as a member of the Politburo in charge of the Party's ideological, cultural, and scientific work, and then holding many other important positions, including two terms as Chairman of the National Assembly and nearly three terms as General Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, he still considered himself a "journalist", deeply understanding and sharing a difficult and arduous but very glorious profession "as a shock soldier on the ideological and cultural front of the Party".

Therefore, in his position as the highest leader of the Party, he always paid attention to creating favorable conditions for journalists to work on important domestic and foreign events; at the same time, he also directly participated in writing articles for a number of newspapers and magazines under different pen names.

In addition to visits and working with a number of key press agencies, the General Secretary still took time to give interviews to many newspapers of ministries, departments and branches, or sent congratulatory letters and suggested directions for the newspaper's activities on the occasion of anniversaries of full and even years. Particularly for Nhan Dan Newspaper, the largest Party newspaper in the country, cadres, reporters and editors were honored to receive special attention from the General Secretary.

I still remember that in early 1997, according to the Politburo's decision to allow Nhan Dan Newspaper to increase from 4 pages to 8 pages, he always followed, encouraged, and praised the efforts, no matter how small, of the Party newspaper collective.

At that time, in his capacity as a member of the Politburo, in charge of the Party's ideological, cultural, and scientific work, comrade Nguyen Phu Trong had many working sessions with the Editorial Board, suggesting ways to improve, innovate, and enhance the quality of daily newspapers as well as the People's Weekend Newspaper, People's Monthly Newspaper, and People's Electronic Newspaper; at the same time, allowing the addition and consolidation of the Editorial Board's personnel. On June 21, 1998, comrade Nguyen Phu Trong, on behalf of the Party and the State, directly pressed the button to connect the Vietnamese electronic newspaper to the internet.

As for me, in my position as Editor-in-Chief at that time, Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong also had private meetings, giving specific opinions on expanding foreign relations with Paxaxon Newspaper, the Central Office of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party; People's Daily Newspaper of the Communist Party of China; Pravda Newspaper of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation; Granma Newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba... and noted the improvement of foreign permanent agencies in Beijing (China), Paris (France) and Bangkok (Thailand).

Many cadres and reporters of newspapers and radio stations share the same feeling as me that meeting and working with Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong is always in a sincere, open, and trusting atmosphere, each person can freely present their proposals and recommendations; especially in cases where a newspaper has shortcomings or defects, Comrade will remind them with gentle but profound and easy-to-understand words.

One of the most profound memories for me when I was assigned to work as the Deputy Head of the Central Committee for Ideology and Culture was when I was assigned to participate in compiling the Politburo's Acceptance Report before the 9th Central Committee Conference. The General Secretary at that time reminded me to submit this draft for comrade Nguyen Phu Trong to review and revise first. I was moved when comrade Nguyen Phu Trong, after only a few hours, proactively sought me out to give me the revised article and kindly told me, "If you see any sentence or word that is not well revised, Hong Vinh, please feel free to discuss it."

Nearly a month ago, when Nhan Dan Online Newspaper published the article “The Attraction of a Book” by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, talking about fighting corruption and negativity, because the printed copy was a bit blurry, the General Secretary asked the Chief of the Central Office Nguyen Duy Ngoc to read the full text, then reminded the Chief of the Office to convey his thanks to the author Hong Vinh and Nhan Dan Newspaper.

Until now, the press across the country still remembers the speech with strategic thinking and high knowledge content by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the 10th Congress of the Vietnam Journalists Association on August 9, 2015.

Looking back now, we all see that the guiding ideology still holds current value in objective and impartial assessments of the achievements and limitations of press agencies and journalists.

He affirmed: “Over the past 90 years, the Vietnamese revolutionary press, founded and led by President Ho Chi Minh, has always accompanied the steadfast struggles of our Party and our people for national independence and socialism”. In the heroic resistance wars against invaders and to protect the Fatherland, our country’s press has become an important arm on the ideological front; many press works have truly been “revolutionary proclamations”, “calls to the country” urging the people of the whole country to join the battle; at the same time, they have been a pioneering tool to protect the Party’s ideological foundation and fight against erroneous and hostile viewpoints.

In addition to the achievements, the General Secretary also pointed out: press activities still reveal many limitations and shortcomings; there are still manifestations of lack of political sensitivity, failure to perform well the function of orienting public opinion, failure to implement the objectives and goals well; still letting in dishonest, inaccurate, sensational, clickbait, and secret-disclosing information; exploiting foreign information in a non-selective manner; not doing a good job of discovering and propagating advanced models, encouraging patriotic emulation movements. Some press agencies are slow to innovate content and form; propaganda lacks appeal, and has not mastered information...

In conclusion, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized: “Our Party, State and people always appreciate the important role of the press in the revolutionary cause; always care about, support and create conditions for the press to develop and hope that the press and the Vietnam Journalists Association will make more efforts to fulfill their glorious and noble mission.”

The General Secretary hopes that journalists “need to fully and more deeply grasp the view that journalism is a sharp weapon, an effective tool of the Party on the ideological front. Each journalist is a revolutionary soldier. The Party absolutely and comprehensively leads journalism activities; the State manages journalism by law. Journalism is a noble and sacred profession. Revolutionary journalists must have a revolutionary spirit, that is, the spirit of attacking, fighting to eliminate the bad, protecting the good, for the common cause of the country and the people.”

Previously in 2010, on behalf of the Party and State leaders, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong awarded the Gold Star Order to the press of our country.

Dear spirit of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong!

Vietnamese revolutionary journalists always remember and are grateful for the sincere and righteous advice of the comrade and vow to unite and strive to effectively implement the requirements of building a professional, modern, democratic and humane Vietnamese revolutionary press in the new period, worthy of the trust and love of the General Secretary.

Farewell, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong!

Hanoi, July 19, 2024