Press Law (amended): Building a professional, humane and modern press and media system

The amendment of the Press Law aims to continue institutionalizing the Party's policies and guidelines on building a professional, humane and modern press and media system, overcoming the limitations and inadequacies of the current Law and in press work in recent times.

On the morning of October 23, continuing the program of the 10th session of the 15th National Assembly , presenting a summary report on the review of the draft Press Law (amended), Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh said that the Committee agreed with the necessity of comprehensively amending the Press Law; basically agreed with the scope and subjects of regulation of the draft Law.

The amendment of the Law aims to continue institutionalizing the Party's policies and guidelines on building a professional, humane and modern press and media system, overcoming the limitations and inadequacies of the current Law and in press work in recent times.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Society presents the Report on the review of the draft Law on Press (amended)

Regarding some major contents of the draft Law, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh said:

Regarding types of press (clauses 3, 4, 5, 6, Article 3): The Draft Law continues to identify 04 types of press, and at the same time, changes the names to print press, radio press, television press and electronic press. The Committee believes that the above change of name needs to be carefully considered to ensure consistency with specialized terminology and universality; it is recommended to study the use of the concepts of print press, radio, television, and electronic press to suit the practice in Vietnam and internationally.

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There are opinions suggesting that the drafting agency continue to research and have more appropriate regulations on press types, meeting the development requirements of press types in the digital age.

Regarding the main multimedia media agency (Clause 6, Article 16): The Committee basically agrees with the addition of regulations on "main multimedia media agency". However, it is recommended to continue researching, clarifying the content, criteria for identification and specific financial mechanisms of main multimedia media agencies.

It is suggested that in addition to the 06 press agencies identified under Decision 362/QD-TTg dated April 3, 2019 of the Prime Minister on approving the national press development and management plan until 2025, it is necessary to consider adding key multimedia press agencies in some localities or some units that have built prestige and have a certain position in press activities.

Regarding the subjects proposed to be granted press operation licenses (Clause 1, Article 17): Currently, in some cases, the activities of press agencies under social organizations, socio-professional organizations, and research institutes still have shortcomings, causing difficulties for state management.

To overcome these shortcomings and limitations, the Committee agrees with the drafting agency on assigning the Government to specify the conditions for socio- political and professional organizations and social organizations when requesting a license to operate the press.

Scene of the meeting on the morning of October 23

Contents related to "press economy": The Committee agrees with the regulations to create conditions for press agencies to have more revenue, increase financial resources to ensure and improve the quality of operations as in the draft Law. However, it is recommended to continue to research, supplement, and clarify the concept of "press economy" and regulations related to public investment, autonomy mechanism, and regulations on revenue from business activities of press agencies.

Regarding press activities in cyberspace (Section 1, Chapter III), the Committee proposed to study and supplement the following contents: Supplementing regulations to promote press activities in cyberspace; Supplementing regulations on legal responsibility of foreign social networking platforms in case the press agency's content channel in cyberspace is hacked, information is modified with illegal content; handling cases where illegal content appears on this channel.

The study stipulates principles on the mechanism for implementing agreements and responsibilities of press agencies and relevant agencies and organizations in ensuring copyright and related rights for press works on cyberspace and press works using artificial intelligence (AI).

Regulations on scientific journals (Article 3, Clause 16; Clauses 3 and 5, Article 16 and Clause 2, Article 21): The majority of the Committee members agreed with the provisions of the draft Law, which includes scientific journals as a special type of press. In addition, there were opinions suggesting that scientific journals should not be included in the scope of regulation of this Law but should be regulated in the Publishing Law because of the nature of this type of journal and according to international experience.

Regarding digital transformation in the field of journalism: The Committee recommends continuing to improve and supplement regulations in the direction of creating a legal corridor to build mechanisms and policies to encourage the development of domestic digital technology platforms and the distribution of press information content; on the rights and legal responsibilities of journalists and press agencies when using artificial intelligence (AI) in press activities.

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/luat-bao-chi-sua-doi-xay-dung-nen-bao-chi-truyen-thong-chuyen-nghiep-nhan-van-va-hien-dai-20251023095708426.htm