Over the past few years, the protection of human rights in general and press freedom in particular in Vietnam has recorded significant developments, recognized by the international community. Despite those achievements, hostile forces still falsely accuse Vietnam of violating “freedom of speech,” and “press freedom.” What is their real intrigue under the cover of “press freedom”?
Freedom of the press is defined as the right of people guaranteed by law and even stipulated by the Constitution; represents a key factor in social life, directly impacting on stability and development of each nation. However, freedom of the press is always a sensitive issue because today’s newspapers affect not only the internal situation of each nation but international opinion. Therefore, most states pay a special attention to guaranteeing people’s freedom of the press. However, due to different approaches and conception of each concrete political institution, the connotations of freedom of speech and freedom of the press are interpreted differently. This is completely normal. Nonetheless, the abnormality is that several hostile forces have exploited that reality to serve their political motives aimed at sabotaging nations out of their “orbit.”
Most nations have acknowledged freedom of the press as one of basic rights of people; the spiritual needs in the development process of each nation. Press freedom includes the right to be informed, the right to exchange and communicate information, the right to express feelings and aspirations publicly, etc., through newspapers, radio and television channels and the internet.
Based on the power of media, rapid dissemination and far-reaching influence of information in newspapers, press freedom has long become one of the issues the hostile forces regularly exploit to implement the “peaceful evolution” strategy aimed at undermining the values of socialism and abolishing the leading role of communist parties, including the Communist Party of Vietnam. This was clearly demonstrated in the collapse of the former Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries, as well as in the political crises and armed conflicts in the world recently. The hostile and reactionary forces took advantage of the cover of “press freedom” to sabotage and their plot was successful. As far as Vietnam is concerned, the cover of “press freedom” the hostile forces employ to sabotage is no longer new but still extremely dangerous. Their usual tricks are to distort, fabricate and falsely accuse our Party and State of violating human rights, inciting western-style press freedom and appealing for publishing “private newspapers,” etc. In terms of contents, they disseminate rumors and write articles to distort truth and fabricate and misrepresent political and historical events. Their acts of sabotage are carried out regularly and continually in the manner of “soft rain penetrates the earth better than a storm,” but often reach their climax on the occasions of National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, elections for National Assembly, important events of the country, etc. Their fundamental goal is to deny the nature and to abolish socialism, the Party’s leadership and the State’s governance. Their methods focus not only on internal dissemination but uploading to the internet or printing in foreign countries before secretly bringing in Vietnam. Most notably, through activities, especially diplomatic activity in the field of journalism in recent years, hostile forces have discovered, contacted, bribed and induced some corrupt journalists to embrace the orbit of western-style “press freedom.” Their approach is extremely sophisticated, methodical and dangerous. At first, they respond to interviews and then become “collaborators” to regularly write articles to distort domestic situation, to criticize Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought, nature of socialism, and guideline and policy of the Party and State, to smear and criticize leaders, to induce people to oppose the authorities, to disseminate pluralism and multi-party system, and so on. Based on the capture of several people who exploited freedom of the press and freedom of speech to sabotage the Party and State and to violate the law, the hostile forces have made every effort to falsely accuse our State of “suppressing” and “strangling” freedom of the press aimed at intervening in the internal affairs of our country.
No matter what approach they employ, they cannot deny Vietnam’s achievements and progress in press freedom. The consistent policy of our Party and State is to strive for an increasingly better level of protection of human rights, including freedom of the press. The Party and State of Vietnam, through their policy, always create favorable conditions for people to exploit and use information in newspapers for economic, cultural and social development; support administrative reform, improve quality of life, and implement people’s rights to freedom. In that spirit, Vietnam has recorded a number of achievements in freedom of the press and internet. Currently, there are 838 newspaper offices with over 1,100 printed materials; 67 central and local radio and television stations broadcasting over 200 domestic channels and 67 foreign channels; 92 offices of digital newspapers and magazines, 1 national news agency, etc., in Vietnam. Results of a survey conducted in December 2012 by WeAreSocial – an independent website dedicated to global social media – revealed that the number of internet users in Vietnam was 30.8 million (increased 10,8 million compared to 2008), accounting for 34% of Vietnamese population (the global average rate was 33%). Currently, there are 3 million people using blogs to express their opinions on social networks, to criticize guideline and policy of the Party and State, to send their opinions and petitions to functional agencies, etc., in Vietnam. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Vietnam ranks 8th place in Asia and 3rd place in Southeast Asia Nations in terms of internet population. The rapid development of public media and the number of internet users shows that freedom of expression and freedom of the press have recorded great progress. The Party, State and people of Vietnam have every right to be proud of their achievements in ensuring human rights in general and freedom of the press in particular, and are determined to struggle with every scheme and distortion of the truth about freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Vietnam.
Nevertheless, it can be said that under any sociopolitical regimes, there is no “absolute freedom of the press” as what the hostile forces have been vocal about. Every nation has their own law and provisions to punish strictly acts of exploiting freedom of speech and press freedom. Like any other nations in the world, Vietnam law also has restrictions on freedom of speech in some cases, in conformity with International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, for respect of the legal and legitimate rights and reputation of others; for the protection of national security, public order, public health, and morals. The exercise of press freedom carries with it special duties and responsibilities for the protection of peace and national security, for national interest. No one is allowed to absolutize personal freedom which is here referred to as the exploitation of press freedom and freedom of expression to write rashly, talk improperly, misrepresent and smear individuals, groups and societies, etc. Over the past few years, Vietnamese press has brought into full play its function, performed its task in the right direction and well served people’s diversified information needs. Along with communicating and encouraging new and progressive elements and creative and effective methods in the cause of Homeland construction and protection, the press has actively participated in social criticism, the struggle against preventing and combating corruption, negativeness and squandering; rejected false and reactionary allegations of hostile forces, making contributions to upholding the Party’s ideological foundation.
Besides denying Vietnam’s achievements in freedom of the press, several anti-communist groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), under the cover of “protecting free journalists in the world,” have recently made distorting remarks about press freedom in Vietnam. Most notably, this organization has just resorted to the trickery of honoring Nguyen Van Hai, who is being jailed for conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, with the 2013 international press freedom award. Furthermore, Reporter Without Borders or Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has issued the so-called “2014 World Press Freedom Index”, which ranked Vietnam near the bottom of the list. Whereby, one of the long-term and fundamental schemes of hostile forces towards Vietnamese revolution is to take advantage of freedom of the press and to use the press as means to undermine the Party’s ideological foundation; to mispresent information to trigger anxiety among people; to incite and divide internal unity; and to smear to undermine people’s prestige and belief in the Communist Party and socialist regime, resulting in political instability, hindering development and seeking pretexts to intervene in the internal affairs of Vietnam.
Given the hostile and reactionary forces’ plots to take advantage of freedom of expression and press freedom to sabotage Vietnam, we have to proactively monitor and be well aware of the situation in order to struggle and put forth timely responses. Moreover, it is necessary to enhance communication to equip the people with a sound understanding of the Party’s guideline and policy and the State law of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Accordingly, people will realize that freedom of the press is not only stipulated in the Constitution and law but also enforced in practice. In addition, communication helps to confirm the achievements in ensuring human rights in general and freedom of the press in particular in Vietnam. On that basis, everyone, every organization has to enhance our responsibility in fulfilling the task of implementing press freedom, heighten vigilance and proactively struggle to defeat every scheme and act of exploiting press freedom of the hostile and reactionary forces to sabotage the Party, State and Vietnamese people. The Party, State, functional ministries and branches, Party executive committees, and local authorities should actively renovate press management to create favorable conditions for press agencies, journalists and reporters to firmly maintain their principles and purposes, struggling against all manifestations of merely pursuing economic profits; bring into play creativeness to fulfill their functions and tasks, contributing to encouraging revolutionary deed of the populace to well perform the two strategic missions. It is necessary to promote the inspection and examination of the press in order to timely detect wrongdoings and deviations in press agencies and journalists to timely prevent and strictly deal with those shortcomings.
Colonel Phung Kim Lan