HÀ NỘI — As many as 70 outstanding journalism works were honoured at the National External Information Service Awards 2015 in Hà Nội on Saturday.

This was the second time the prize has been held by the Party Central Committee’s Publicity and Education Commission and the Central Steering Committee for External Information Services.

It aims to honour journalism works composed by both professional and amateur journalists towards audiences who are foreigners and Vietnamese overseas, as well as to motivate them to contribute more to national journalism.

There are six first prize winners, 13 second prize winners, 18 third prize winners, and 33 consolation prize holders in five categories: printed newspapers, online newspapers, TV broadcasting, radio broadcasting and press photos.

As the nation’s leading external information channel with 10 units providing external information services, the Việt Nam News Agency (VNA) submitted 181 entries this year, of which 15 won prizes.

The work “August-September 1945, the historic turning point of the Vietnamese nation” by Hữu Ngọc from the VNA’s French-language newspaper Le Courrier du Việt Nam, and the multi-media work “Việt Nam’s development after 70 years” by a group of reporters from VNA’s electronic newspaper VietnamPlus won two first prizes.

Việt Nam News won a second prize with a series of printed work named “Uncle Hồ’s revolutionary government was unique”, composed by foreign collaborator Virginia Morris, a researcher on the US War in Việt Nam and the first western writer to walk the Hồ Chí Minh Trail.

The work featured her visit to the Hồ Chí Minh Trail, stories about female couriers and unknown information about the Tết Offensive in 1968.

According to the organising committee, this year, the award received a total of 737 entries, an increase of 42 per cent compared with last year.

The submitted works were in 11 languages, varying from Vietnamese, English, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Spanish to Japanese, Korean, Lao and Bulgarian.

The quality of the entries have been improved compared with the previous year, covering a wide range of political, economic, social and cultural topics of the country as well as the lives of Vietnamese overseas, outstanding events in Việt Nam, the region and the world in 2015.

They also contributed to the dissemination of the Party and State’s policies and promoting images of Vietnamese land, culture and people to the world.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Politburo member and permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, Đinh Thế Huynh, highlighted the significance of the external information services, saying that at present, the services are benefiting from numerous new opportunities while also facing an array of difficulties and challenges.

The agencies providing external information services need to continue raising awareness about the importance of the work, regularly renew and improve the efficiency of the services offered, and push forward with the implementation of the Politburo’s Strategy for the Development of External Information Services in the 2011-2020 period, he said, so as to help promote Việt Nam’s prestige and standing, and win over the assistance of the international community and overseas Vietnamese communities, ultimately creating favourable conditions for the cause of national development and defence. — VNS