In the early 1990s, before becoming a professional revolutionary, comrade Nguyen Phu Trong was appointed by the Politburo to be Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Review - the Party’s leading political theory magazine. Later, he left the Communist Review as a member of the Politburo in charge of the Party's ideological, cultural, and educational work. After which, he held many other important positions, including two terms as Chairman of the National Assembly and nearly three full terms as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. He still considered himself a “journalist”, deeply understanding and sharing the in difficult and arduous but very beautiful profession. “Journalists are soldiers on the Party's ideological and cultural front”.
Therefore, as the Party’s highest leader, he always paid attention to creating favourable conditions for journalists to work before important events in domestic and foreign affairs; at the same time, he also directly participated in writing articles for a number of newspapers and magazines under various pen names.
In addition to visiting and working with a number of key press agencies, the General Secretary still spent time giving interviews to many newspapers of departments, ministries, branches, or sending letters of congratulations and suggestions on the direction of the newspaper's activities on the occasion of anniversaries.
As the country’s largest Party newspaper, Nhan Dan Newspaper’s officers, reporters, and editors were especially honoured to receive special attention from the General Secretary.
I still remember the decision of the Politburo in early 1997 allowing Nhan Dan Newspaper to increase from 4 pages to 8 pages. Comrades always followed, encouraged, and praised the efforts of the Party newspaper collective.
Since February 1998, as a member of the Politburo in charge of the Party’s ideological, cultural, and educational work, comrade Nguyen Phu Trong has held many working sessions with the Editorial Board, suggesting ways to improve, innovate, and enhance the quality of the daily newspaper as well as Nhan Dan Weekend, Nhan Dan Monthly, and Nhan Dan Online. At the same time, he allowed the addition and strengthening of the Editorial Board's personnel. On June 21, 1998, on behalf of the Party and State, comrade Nguyen Phu Trong directly pressed the button to connect Nhan Dan Online to the Internet.
As for me, as Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper at the time, comrade Nguyen Phu Trong also held private working sessions and gave specific opinions on expanding foreign relations with Pasaxon Newspaper of the Central Committee 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 so on, and paid attention to strengthening foreign permanent agencies in Beijing, Paris, and Bangkok.
Many officials and reporters from newspapers and radio and TV stations all share the same feeling as me: meeting and working with comrade Nguyen Phu Trong was in a sincere, open, and trustworthy atmosphere, with each person able to freely present their opinions, suggestions, and recommendations. Notably, there were cases where a certain newspaper had shortcomings and comrades reminded them of their tasks with gentle but penetrating and easy-to-digest words.
One of the profound memories for me when serving as Standing Deputy Head of the Central Ideological and Cultural Committee was when I was appointed to participate in compiling the Politburo's Reception of Explanation before a session of the 9th Party Central Committee. At that time, Comrade General Secretary reminded me to give this draft to comrade Nguyen Phu Trong to review and edit first. I was touched to see that comrade Nguyen Phu Trong, after just a few hours, proactively sought me out to give me the edited article and cordially advised that “if you see any sentence or word that is not correct, feel free to discuss.” Nearly a month ago, when Nhan Dan Online published an article on “The attraction of a book” by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong talking about anti-corruption and negativity, the General Secretary asked Chief of the Party Central Office Nguyen Duy Ngoc to read the full text, then reminded him to convey his thanks to author Hong Vinh and Nhan Dan Newspaper.
At present, the press across the country still remembers the memory of the guiding speech with strategic thinking and high intellectual content by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the 10th Congress of the Vietnam Journalists Association on August 9, 2015. Objective and fair assessments of the achievements and limitations of activities in press agencies and journalists, looking back now, we all see that that guiding ideology still has its value in current affairs.
He affirmed: “Over the past ninety years, the Vietnamese revolutionary press, founded and led by President Ho Chi Minh, has always accompanied the resilient struggles of our Party and people, for national independence, for socialism. In the heroic resistance against invasion and defence of the Fatherland, our country’s press has become an important “soldier” on the ideological front of many works. The press was truly a “revolutionary exhortation”, an “appeal of the nation” urging people all over the country to go to war together.”
In addition to these achievements, the General Secretary also pointed out that journalism activities also revealed many limitations and shortcomings. There are also signs of a lack of political acumen, not doing a good job in shaping public opinion, and not effectively implementing the principles nor goals; sharing dishonest, inaccurate, sensational, and misleading information as well as revealing secrets; a lack of selective exploitation of foreign information; and ineffectiveness in the work of discovering and propagating advanced examples and promoting patriotic emulation movements. Some press agencies are slow to innovate their content and form, with unattractive content unable to master information.
In the conclusion, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasised: “Our Party, State and people always appreciate the important role of the press in the revolutionary cause; always pay attention, support, and create favourable conditions for the development of the press and hope that the press and the Vietnam Journalists Association will make more efforts to fulfil their glorious and noble mission.” The General Secretary hoped that journalists need to fully and deeply grasp the view that the press is a sharp weapon and an effective tool of the Party on the ideological front. Every journalist is a revolutionary soldier. The Party has absolute and comprehensive leadership over press activities. The state manages the press by law. Journalism is a noble and sacred profession. Revolutionary journalists must have a revolutionary spirit, which is the spirit of 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 our country’s press.
Vietnamese revolutionary journalists always remember and are grateful for the comrade’s sincere instructions and his vow to unite and strive to effectively implement the requirements of building the revolutionary press of Vietnam, which is professional, modern, democratic, and humane in the new period, worthy of the trust and love of the Party General Secretary.
We respectfully bid farewell to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong!
Hanoi, July 19, 2024
