In the current context, press and publication agencies have been performing a key, vanguard role in protecting the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting against wrong, hostile viewpoints. That necessitates us keeping encouraging this role of press and publication agencies as a contribution to making the Party pure and strong in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel.

Journalism and publication are an important part of ideological and cultural work, acting as a sharp weapon placed under the Party’s direct leadership, constituting the voice of the Party, the State, socio-political organisations, and unions as well as the people’s forum. Fully aware of the importance of journalism and publication, our Party has promulgated many documents on the development of press and publication agencies, including the defence of the Party’s ideological foundation and the fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints. Notably, on October 22^nd, 2018, the Politburo issued Resolution 35-NQ/TW on further safeguarding the Party’s ideological foundation and combating wrong, hostile viewpoints in the new situation. According to the Resolution, it is necessary to promote the synergy of press, publication, and communication agencies to contribute to firmly protecting the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting against wrong, hostile viewpoints. That is significant orientation for press, publication, and communication agencies to carry out this important task.

1. Press and publication agencies’ role in safeguarding the Party’s ideological foundation and combating wrong, hostile viewpoints

First of all, press and publication agencies have been active in propagation work and released great publications as theoretical and political researches, thereby cementing the people’s faith in Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, and the Party’s guidelines, enabling the Party’s  ideology to become a staple of our society’s mental life. Press agencies, particularly the key ones, and a number of publishers specialising in theoretical, political, and law books have invested in human, material, and technical development and formulated plans on Party building propagation to contribute to translating the Party’s guidelines and resolutions into life.

Second, press and publication agencies have focused on disseminating the Party’s guidelines and the State’s laws and policies as well as national development guidelines and plans by the National Congress, the Government, ministries, and sectors, while analysing and clarifying the soundness of guidelines and policies amongst our cadres, party members, and citizens. At the same time, they have promoted their supervisory and critical roles in issues relating to the country’s socio-economic situation and opportunely commended good examples and models in terms of national construction and protection as an incentive to the patriotic emulation movement.

Press and publication agencies have actively taken part in preventing and combating corruption and negative practices, aligned this work with the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and lifestyle, and affirmed our Party, State, and political system’s resolve in the fight against corruption and negative phenomena. Doing so has contributed to providing official information for the people, combating distortions of our Party and State’s determination in the fight against corruption and negative practices, and strengthening the people’s faith in justice and our Party and State’s leadership.

Third, press and publication agencies have developed many programmes, articles, and documents illustrating the importance of making the Party and the political system really pure and strong as well as the fight against “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, and degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle amongst a section of cadres and party members.

Fourth, press and publication agencies have greatly contributed to developing and spreading the systems of national values, cultural values, family values and the Vietnamese human standard values especially after the Party’s resolutions, directives, and conference on culture. More importantly, they have highlighted the role of culture in national development; Vietnamese human and cultural development has gained significant achievements towards Truth, Goodness, and Aestheticism imbued with national, humanistic, democratic, and scientific spirit as a contribution to preserving and bringing into play traditional cultural values in the country’s general development process.

Fifth, press and agencies have produced numerous works directly combating wrong arguments about “ethnicity”, “religion”, “democracy”, and “human rights” in Viet Nam, focusing on proving the legal foundation of Viet Nam as a sovereign nation with specific regulations and policies on those above-mentioned issues. Several key press agencies have launched and maintained columns not only in Vietnamese language but also in foreign and ethnic minority languages to disseminate information about our Party and State’s guidelines and policies on ethnicity, religion, democracy, and human rights amongst Vietnamese people both at home and abroad as well as international friends.

2. Continuing further promoting the role of press and publication agencies in defending the Party’s ideological foundation and combating wrong, hostile viewpoints in the new situation

In the upcoming years, hostile forces and political opportunists will take advantage of scientific and technical advances made by the 4^th industrial revolution, particularly the Internet and social networks against our country; the fight for protecting the Party’s ideological foundation will become more intense. Therefore, in order to further bring into play the role of press and publication agencies together with Party and State agencies in performing this important task, it is necessary to focus on synchronously adopting several key measures as follows.

First, strengthening the work of leading, directing, orientating, and managing press and publication activities. The work of leadership, direction, and management should be timely, scientific, convincing, and flexible enough to meet practical requirements. Emphasis should be placed on directing press and publication agencies at both central and local levels to thoroughly grasp the Party’s viewpoints and Ho Chi Minh Thought on culture, art, journalism, and publication as well as the role of journalism and publication in bettering mental life of the masses and staff members of the armed forces. Press and publication agencies should well implement tasks and measures set by the Resolution of the 13^th National Party Congress and Resolution 35-NQ/TW of the Politburo.

Central committees, ministries, sectors, and local authorities should develop communication mechanisms so that press and publication agencies could opportunely provide information, particularly about complex, sensitive incidents for cadres, party members, and citizens; at the same time, due attention should be paid to grasping and quickly settling new issues in order to prevent hostile forces from spreading false information.

Second, clearly defining press and publication agencies’ position, role, and responsibility for safeguarding the Party’s ideological foundation and combating wrong, hostile viewpoints. Press and publication agencies should thoroughly grasp the paramount importance of defending the Party’s ideological foundation and combating wrong, hostile viewpoints in the new situation. They should concentrate on raising the quality of political and ideological work, improving their staff members’ political zeal, theoretical knowledge, and method of ideological struggle, preventing and pushing back signs of degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle as well as “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” amongst their reporters and editors. In the medium term, it is necessary to grasp and effectively implement Plan 154-KH/BTGTW, dated June 10^th, 2022 on realising the emulation movement titled “building the cultural environment within press agencies” and Plan 156-KH/BTGTW, dated June 14^th, 2022 on strengthening the work of directing, managing, and rectifying operations of newspapers, magazines, web portals, and social networks in the current period by the Party Central Committee's Publicity  and Education Commission.

Third, enhancing roles and responsibilities of leaderships and editorial boards of press and publication agencies. To well implement this measure, heads of press and publication agencies should be fully aware of their own roles and responsibilities. It is important for them to regularly study and follow Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and lifestyle, raise the combativeness of the revolutionary press, “match their words with action”, remain proactive, creative, and dedicated in their work, dare to think, dare to do, and dare to take responsibility. They must have good knowledge of the task of defending the Party’s ideological foundation and combating wrong, hostile viewpoints. Besides, they should clearly identify objects of combat and hostile forces’ plots and artifices in each period so as to closely exercise their leadership and direction and adopt effective methods of combat.

Fourth, adding greater weight to building organisational structure, developing human resources, and raising the quality of specialised pages and columns. Press and publication agencies should attach special importance to developing their components, manpower, and columns specialising in safeguarding the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting against wrong, hostile viewpoints to successfully fulfil this key task. At the same time, consideration should be given to building specialised forces and units in order to clearly identify their responsibilities and targets and effectively perform this task. Reporters and editors in charge of this task must be “both red and expert”, demonstrate great political zeal, pure morality, self-discipline, and enthusiasm for work, acquire deep knowledge of political theory and journalistic work, and adopt scientific method of struggle.

Fifth, renewing contents and methods of propagation to defend the Party’s ideological foundation and fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints. Information and propagation work performed by press and publication agencies must be a close combination of “building” and “fighting”; in this regard, “building” must be fundamental, while “fighting” must be drastic and effective. It is essential to further spread positive, official information under the spirit of taking positive things against bad things, create media effects to raise public awareness of values of the Vietnamese people and our country’s political regime, and ensure that every journalistic work and publication will help cement the people’s faith in the country and orientate ideology of readers and viewers.

Furthermore, due attention should be paid to diversifying forms of information and propagation and encouraging the involvement and coordination of all press and publication agencies and other forces to create combined strength in the fight against wrong, hostile viewpoints. Great value should be attached to modernising and developing press and publication agencies into multimedia ones to keep pace with the digital era. This is a challenge and heavy task for every press and publication agency and their staff members nowadays. Moreover, it is vital to take advantage of channels of information to enable journalistic works and publications to serve overseas Vietnamese and foreigners who are interested in Viet Nam. Due regard should be paid to developing theoretical external information channel to disseminate the advanced, scientific, revolutionary ideology and theories on socialism and the path towards socialism in Viet Nam as well as the national renewal policy of the Communist Party of Viet Nam amongst friends all over the world in order to narrow differences, alleviate hostility, increase mutual understanding, and gain stronger support for our country. This is a proactive method of struggle against distortions and wrong, hostile viewpoints from afar, aimed at forming an extensive, scientific, revolutionary ideological, theoretical front to push back wrong, hostile arguments and defend values of the socialist regime in our country.

TRAN THANH LAM, Deputy Head of the Party Central Committee's Publicity and Education Commission