HÀ NỘI — The second three-day National Press Festival, themed “Vietnamese press develops together with the nation’s renewal”, kicked off yesterday in Hà Nội with 470 news organizations in attendance.

Hồ Quang Lợi, vice chairman of the Việt Nam Journalist Association (VJA) said the festival aimed to praise the country’s achievements during its renewal process.

The event was also a chance to honour the national press and promote valuable journalism to the public, he said.

“We see it as a lively convergence of the press and the public nationwide,” he said.

The event was held after the success of the first national press festival last year. This year, many changes were made, he added.

The festival’s scale was larger. Only 400 news organisations participated last year, but the number was 470 this year.

Last year, the event presented excellent press works, but this year, it also displayed modern equipment used by media outlets, he said.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam, said the event offered a chance to bring the press closer to the public.

Đam also said each journalist should fight negative phenomena and set a good example in obeying laws and regulations.

The festival, set to finish on March 19, includes a forum discussing the morality of journalists in the digital era, a workshop honouring “Journalist Lưu Quý Kỳ and the Vietnamese Revolutionary Press”, a photo exhibition named “Những nẻo đường đất nước” (On every road of the country) and a meeting among news organisations, State managerial agencies and the public to exchange ideas.

The organising board will grant awards on March 19. This year, the organiser plans to award the best reporting on environmental issues in 2016.

Journalist’s morality in digital era

The rapid development of social networking sites was a challenge for traditional media, heard the forum discussing the morality of journalists in the digital era yesterday.

Therefore, journalists’ morality should be raised more than ever because journalists now face many temptations, for example, using “clickbait” headlines to gain more views from readers, or writing stories with information from social networking sites without fact-checking, participants said.

Trần Trọng Dũng, editor in chief of Công an Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh (HCM City Public Security) online newspaper said each editor in chief should be a good example for their staff to follow moral principles of a journalist.

Trịnh Quốc Dũng, from the VJA said each journalist was required to put their professional skills and responsibility first so that they can report news in the most exact and quickest way.

A representative from Người làm báo (The Journalist) Magazine said “In the race between traditional media and social networking sites, traditional media have no choice but to build public trust.”

This was because the the public has always demanded valuable and qualified journalism, he added.— VNS