Decision 362/QD-TTg 2019 master plan on press development and management

DECISION

Approving the master plan on press development and management nationwide through 2025^[1]

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the June 19, 2015 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the April 5, 2016 Press Law;

Based on opinions of the Party Central Committee’s Political Bureau, Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, and the Standing Member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat in Documents No. 10018-CV/VPTW of March 31, 2015; No. 26-KL/TW of December 29, 2017; and No. 8785-CV/VPTW of February 1, 2019;

At the proposal of the Minister of Information and Communications;

DECIDES:

Article 1. To approve the master plan on press development and management nationwide through 2025, with the following principal contents:

I. VIEWPOINTS

1. The press is a means of communications, a tool of propagation, and an important ideological weapon of the Party and State, and a forum of the people which is placed under the direct and comprehensive leadership of the Party and management of the State and operates under the Constitution and law.

2. To develop and properly manage the press along the line of revolutionism, professionism, quality and effectiveness to meet the people’s information demand, disseminate the Party’s line and the State’s policies and laws, unite and rally the masses, create social consensus, set ideological and aesthetic orientations, and contribute to improving the people’s intellectual standards and developing the Vietnamese culture and people.

3. The State shall adopt mechanisms and policies on finance and training, and create necessary conditions for the press to perform its political and communication tasks and, at the same time, encourage press agencies to further mobilize resources for development while ensuring adherence to the set principles and objectives, refraining from purely pursuing profits, and preventing private ownership of the press and control of the press by interest groups from occurring.

4. To develop the press in line with science and technology development as well as information and media trends in the world. To closely combine assorted types of journalism and at the same time bring into play the advantages of different media and information services in the Internet in order to proactively provide, and increase the coverage of, official information at home and abroad, and restrict negative effects and ensure cyber information safety and security.

II. OBJECTIVES

To arrange the press system in combination with renewing the organizational model and increasing the effectiveness of the leadership and management of the press to develop the system of print press, visual press, audio press, and electronic press. To build a number of key multimedia press agencies to play the core role in orienting public opinion and providing external information. To arrange the press system, remedying the situation of overlaps, thinned-out investment, loose management and operation without strict adherence to the set principles and objectives in combination with clear identification of the press leadership and management responsibility of Party Committees and administrations, especially heads of managing agencies and press agencies. To build a contingent of managers, reporters and editors who possess moral qualities and professional qualifications to meet requirements for press development in the new situation.

III. ORIENTATIONS, ARRANGEMENT PLANS AND IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE

1. For printed newspapers and magazines

To arrange the system of print press agencies in association with renewing their organizational and managerial model along the line of reducing the number of print press agencies and allowing each agency to have more than one publication (including one major publication and maybe some other publications). After being arranged, all press agencies will have direct managing agencies being provincial- or ministerial-level units (excluding military zone- and armed service-level ones) so as to facilitate direction and management work. Press agencies shall be entitled to enjoy financial autonomy. The State shall reserve budget funds to invest in a number of key press agencies, apply the mechanism of order placement to a number of newspapers and magazines performing identified political tasks. To renew the forms and contents of publications to meet the demand for general information as well as specialized information of each group of readers and each region. The arrangement plan and implementation schedule are prescribed as follows: