Supporting high-quality journalism will spark creativity

Methodical, serious, fair, and follow the correct process

Every year, the Ho Chi Minh City Journalists Association, based on the Guidelines of the Vietnam Journalists Association , carries out the work of supporting high-quality journalistic works to the affiliated Associations and grassroots Journalists Associations.

First of all, the Association will deploy to the leaders of press agencies to thoroughly grasp the Government 's policy of financial support for local press according to the suggestions of the Vietnam Journalists Association's Guidelines; allocate targets and numbers to the Association's branches and grassroots journalist branches; organize registration and sign implementation contracts with the Editorial Boards of Newspapers, Magazines, Boards of Directors of Television Stations, Boards of Directors of Radio Stations.

Then, collect press works; synthesize; organize preliminary rounds to evaluate quality. The review board includes representatives of the Journalists Association, the City Party Committee's Propaganda Department and the City Department of Information and Communications to appraise and accept, and decide on the level of financial support for each approved work. Due to the methodical, serious, impartial and properly implemented procedures and regulations, the work of receiving funding to support high-quality press works is carried out quite smoothly, and the funding is always disbursed quickly.

Ho Chi Minh City Journalists Association always cares about professional training for its members.

Accordingly, the Ho Chi Minh City Journalists Association has allocated most of its budget for journalistic works and training and professional development for members and journalists. In 2021 and 2022, the Ho Chi Minh City Journalists Association will focus all of its budget on supporting high-quality journalistic works. The allocation of funds, acceptance, and settlement are conducted in accordance with the principles of public and transparent finance to each Association, grassroots Journalists Association, and authors receiving support.

In all steps of implementation, from the beginning to the end of the support activities, there was a high level of consensus among the leaders of the City Party Committee's Propaganda Department, the Department of Information and Communications and the Standing Committee of the City Journalists Association. Through each step of implementation, the work of supporting high-quality press works at the Ho Chi Minh City Journalists Association was carried out smoothly and achieved high efficiency thanks to the good implementation of a number of important steps.

One is to save maximum expenses to focus on funding for authors - high-quality press works. Two is to seriously and transparently implement financial revenue and expenditure, which has helped facilitate the reception, disbursement and settlement of funding sources. Three is to help members improve their professional qualifications, exchange experiences, and practice skills through professional training courses; at the same time, high-quality press works printed and widely distributed by the Vietnam Journalists Association are also a great encouragement for award-winning authors and promote the efforts of non-award-winning authors.

Based on the reality of the past years, the Ho Chi Minh City Journalists Association recommends that the Vietnam Journalists Association propose to the Government to continue to maintain the program of regularly supporting high-quality journalistic works of practical significance. It is possible to increase the level of support for journalistic works in genres such as political commentary, commentary, investigative reporting, etc. to serve political tasks and Party building work.

In addition, it is necessary to issue guidelines and regulations on the number of works and budget for local Journalists Associations right from the beginning of the year so that provincial and municipal Associations can be more proactive in implementing plans to press agencies and organizing for members - journalists to promptly register topics for creating high-quality press works.

In addition, it is necessary to periodically organize preliminary and summary conferences to draw experience, and at the same time disseminate good practices and new ways of doing things of local Journalists Associations, thereby helping the Associations to increasingly improve the implementation of the program to support the creation of high-quality press works more effectively. The main thing is to create works with depth, reflecting all aspects of social life.

It is necessary to clarify contents such as the scope of encouraged topics, the effectiveness of support in improving the quality of content, innovating the form of expression of journalistic works, improving the professional qualifications of members, creating sources of works to participate in the National Press Awards, the Golden Hammer and Sickle Press Awards, the National Great Unity Press Awards, the Press Awards of provinces and cities and other specialized Press Awards...

Investing in high-quality journalism is key

It can be affirmed that in order to meet the requirements of the new situation and effectively serve the political tasks of localities and the whole country, the requirement for press agencies and journalists is to continue to strongly innovate and improve the quality of operations.

In particular, investing in high-quality journalistic works is the core, fundamental issue and a decisive factor in the growth of journalistic activities in the new period. Next is investing in technological infrastructure, applying new and modern technologies to journalistic work regularly and continuously to ensure consistency, creating the best conditions for reporters and editors to work, promoting their creativity to have high-quality journalistic works.

Ho Chi Minh City Journalists Association organizes professional training classes for members.

Faced with the current information explosion, the Vietnam Journalists Association and the governing bodies of each press and media unit need to create more favorable conditions in terms of human resources, facilities, funding, etc. to effectively perform the function of guiding and verifying information on social networks, refuting erroneous and hostile viewpoints in the new situation in a convincing and effective manner. A journalistic work that has vitality, the power to shake public opinion, and is agreed upon by a large number of readers and listeners, must first of all be a work that correctly addresses issues raised by real life with the intellectual investment of the writer, with all the passion for the profession, the sense of social responsibility and civic duty of the author.

To produce high-quality journalism, in addition to financial support, it is necessary to pay more attention to training and fostering reporters and editors in terms of professional expertise. They must of course be "multi-talented" people . If in the past, reporters could only specialize in taking photos, or only specializing in writing news and articles for print newspapers... now they need to know how to shoot video clips, take photos, write articles, edit, stage, and embed sound...

Implementing well the training and fostering of human resources for journalism will contribute to improving the capacity of the team of journalists, along with the work of supporting high-quality journalistic works as we have been doing for a long time, will certainly inspire creativity in enhancing the political capacity, strength and prestige of revolutionary journalism activities in the period of integration and development.

In short, the journalistic works that receive support are truly exemplary works, with elaborate investment, discovery, highlighting issues of public concern, bringing a constructive and critical voice, contributing to the successful implementation of the Party and State's policies. And certainly, investing in high-quality works is also a way to encourage journalists to invest more in the quality of their works, thereby "clearing the way" for good-quality works to participate in the press awards of the city, ministries, branches and the annual National Press Awards.

Journalist Duong Vu Thong - Permanent Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City Journalists Association

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/ho-tro-tac-pham-bao-chi-chat-luong-cao-se-khoi-nguon-sang-tao-post252168.html