Follow up on information and follow through to bring the matter to light.

The 2023 National Press Award for Anti-Corruption and Negativity is a worthy reward for that determination and tireless efforts.

Overcoming temptation

Journalist Nguyen Hong Nguyen - Law Protection Newspaper - is known as a writer specializing in the fields of internal affairs, justice and reportage. During his time working at Law & Society Newspaper, he won the Ngo Tat To Journalism Award many times and most recently the A prize of the National Journalism Award for preventing and combating corruption and negativity with the series of articles "Deforestation of natural forests in Bac Kan ". In nearly 20 years of working as a journalist, the topics of deforestation, illegal exploitation of resources, and environmental protection have always received his special attention, spending a lot of time and effort, even though he knew that this is a topic that always has potential risks and unpredictable dangers in his work.

The same thing happened with the natural forest destruction in Bac Kan. In early April 2023, through daily newspaper monitoring, he noticed that some newspapers reported on this incident, but all of them only published initial information with very brief content. Continuing to monitor, a few days later, he did not see the newspapers that had initially published information continue to report on the forest destruction, verify and clarify the subjects of forest destruction, the causes of forest destruction, the methods and tricks of the criminals... with a professional perspective, he noticed that there was something unusual in this incident.

Journalist Nguyen Hong Nguyen talks with leaders of the Forest Ranger Department at the evidence warehouse.

The question he asked was: Will the information be "sunk"? With the desire that the news article reflecting in-depth on this deforestation case must be quickly conveyed to the public, in order to contribute to finding "loopholes" and inadequacies in forest management and protection and proposing solutions, while raising people's awareness in forest protection, Hong Nguyen reported the topic to the department leaders, the Editorial Board and proposed to go to the field to learn more about the case. With the consent of his superiors, at 4 a.m. he traveled alone to Bac Kan province to be in time for the meeting with the leaders of the commune - the locality where the forest was illegally cut down at 8 a.m. that morning.

After working with the commune leaders, the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee assigned a commune police officer to lead him to the scene. From the outside to the scene, the only way to get to the scene was through a company specializing in mining and processing minerals. When arriving at the gate of this company, the commune police officer asked the security guard to open the barrier to lead the reporter into the forest as requested by his superiors. However, when he learned that he was a journalist who wanted to go to the scene of the illegally cut forest, the company's security guard prevented him from passing. The district leaders had to intervene, calling the company's leader to ask him to open the gate to let him pass, but he was not allowed to do so.

The more he was hindered, the more he wanted to approach the scene. The illegally cut forest area was planned as a production forest, the status of which was natural forest. According to current law, if one wanted to exploit or cut down a natural tree in this forest, one had to report, ask for opinions and get approval from the Prime Minister . Being hindered by the company's people, he had to ask the locals to find another way. After being driven by a local on a motorbike for dozens of kilometers, he continued walking for another kilometer to climb a mountainside - the closest location to the scene of the deforestation. From here, he used a flycam to record the current state of the deforestation. During that process, the company's people kept calling him to ask for a meeting and to ask him not to write about the deforestation.

Journalist Nguyen Hong Nguyen shared: “ Although I encountered many difficulties, hardships and was hindered in my work, I still wanted to witness the scene with my own eyes, in order to collect the most authentic images of the deforestation to convey to the public. On the business side, they tried every way to prevent me from accessing the scene. They even used many relationships such as some colleagues and people in authority to call me to intervene, prevent me from penetrating the reality and approaching the authorities, and at the same time used money to bribe me, asking me to create conditions, help, and not write articles. However, I cleverly refused and overcame material temptations.”

When the subject is afraid to meet the journalist…

He engaged himself, penetrated the reality, interviewed for documents, and from there, the 5-part series "Deforestation of natural forests in Bac Kan" was born one after another. The process of implementing the series was carefully prepared by him, and all documents and images were carefully verified. Accordingly, in order to expose the plot, methods, and tricks of the mastermind in the deforestation, and at the same time protect the legitimate rights of some people who were taken advantage of and hired by others to exploit wood because of their gullibility, he had to spend a lot of time to get the phone numbers of some people who were considered "forest bandits". When he called, these people were afraid to meet the journalist.

Journalist Nguyen Hong Nguyen.

Not discouraged, he continued to call and talk to them about his family life, his wife and children, his brothers, his fields, his livestock, and his work during his free time... then he shared about his journalism career, the duty of a journalist is to fight against evil, protect the right, ensure fairness... Finally, he convinced those who were considered "forest bandits" to meet him to provide information, who introduced them to work, their work, wages, how they worked in and out of the company, who knew them, who directed them... According to these people, they were introduced to work for a company that had been licensed to exploit timber, but they themselves could not have imagined that they were hired to do something illegal.

Talking about the first day of implementing this type of article, journalist Nguyen Hong Nguyen shared: “ On the first day of collecting information, documents, and images, I received many calls from strange numbers, asking me to stop developing the article, which distracted me. However, I still tried to contact the authorities to request information and documents about the incident. That night, to avoid any unexpected events, I did not stay in the district center but traveled about 50 km to get out of the city. When I drove to the city center, suddenly a black 7-seat car overtook me and forced my car to stop. A person got out of the car, approached my car, asked to meet me, presented some issues related to business activities, and at the same time gave me a "gift" to ask for my help by not writing the article. However, I tactfully refused" .

The 5-part series “Deforestation of natural forests in Bac Kan” not only simply provides information about the deforestation, but the author also goes into depth to reflect on the masterminds, motives, purposes, methods and tricks of deforestation, clarify the origin of forest land, illegal trading of forest land... this is the "loophole" in forest management and protection in this locality and is also the cause of illegal deforestation; at the same time, it also reflects the state management responsibility of local authorities and related units.

It can be said that for investigative reporters, when developing a topic, going to the grassroots to penetrate reality, the most important thing is to dare to commit, have an optimistic spirit, be impartial and pure; try to collect the most authentic and detailed information, documents, and images for each case, ensuring that the work is in accordance with legal regulations... That is also the "key" for journalist Hong Nguyen to have quality articles, find solutions to problems, contribute to the work of building society, and serving the people.

Le Tam

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/deo-bam-thong-tin-theo-den-cung-de-dua-su-viec-ra-anh-sang-post278710.html