This statement was made by Truong Tan Sang, member of the Party Politburo and Central Committee Secretariat, at the two-day conference on press management which closed in the north-eastern province of Quang Ninh on January 9.

He spoke highly of the achievements of the press during the past 20 years of the Doi Moi (Renewal) process, particularly two years after implementing conclusions on press management made by the 9^th Party Politburo on December 1, 2004. He pointed out weaknesses of several media agencies and workers and suggested major orientations in 2007 and the coming years.

The Party official stressed the need to strengthen the Party and State management of the press in the new situation, with a focus on enhancing the leadership role of Party and State organisations and heads of media agencies in appointing and recruiting media workers. The Ministry of Culture and Information and other relevant agencies should strengthen the State management of the press by amending and supplementing law-regulated documents on press activities, renewing training activities and increasing political stance, professional skills and ethics for media workers, particularly leaders of media agencies.

Delegates agreed with evaluation reports delivered by representatives of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Ideology and Culture, the Ministry of Culture and Information and the Vietnam Journalists’ Association, featuring the achievements and weaknesses in press activities and management in recent times. These reports pointed to the fact that most media agencies made little progress in news reporting, in-depth analysis, and commentaries, as well as, in other journalist skills. They said many newspapers covered events in a similar style, without in-depth analysis or follow-up to new lead stories. Several newspapers published too many negative phenomena without digging up and replicating exemplary models. In addition, many reporters did not undergo professional training courses on journalism, lacked political stance and showed signs of power abuse. Many articles contained incorrect information, but corrections were slow going.