The Vietnamese Journalism Association should pay more attention to the improvement of its members’ political and professional skills since the social and media environments have become complex.— VNA/VNS Illustrative Photo

HCM CITY — The Vietnamese Journalism Association should pay more attention to the improvement of its members’ political and professional skills since the social and media environments have become complex, the head of the Central Publicity and Education Commission, Võ Văn Thưởng, told a journalists’ meeting yesterday.

There are plots to take advantage of the freedom and democracy in the country and organise activities that go against the values and goals targeted by revolutionary journalism, he told the meeting held to review last year’s performance of the Vietnamese Journalists Association in HCM City on Friday.

Journalists’ inexperience and ideological and political degradation are among the main reasons for this, he said.

Many journalists judge and criticise others instead of spending some time to assess themselves to improve their own standards, ethics and lifestyles, he said.

Đinh La Thăng, Secretary of HCM City Party Committee, said: “The media must not only provide information and publicise [State policies] but also act as a social forum where people interact with authorities, express their opinions and aspirations and show their rights as masters.”

To make people from all walks of life join hands whole-heartedly and responsibly and to realise programmes launched by the city and the Government, the media’s support is needed, he said.

He hoped that journalists across the country would help HCM City acquire information about all areas like production, business, social security, food hygiene and safety, and security and social order, he said.

Assessing the activities of the association in the past few years, Thưởng said the media had developed well but not the association itself.

The association should reconsider the ways in which it plays the co-ordinating role in the polity and raise its voice to protect journalists who face the threat of assault.

He also criticised some journalists for taking advantage of their position to commit “bad deeds”, some of which resulted in regretful consequences. — VNS