Vietnam orders media to limit scandal coverage
HANOI - Vietnam's ruling Communist Party has
moved to rein in official media coverage of a scandal linking
the mafia to high places, warning newspapers they have
overstepped the mark with unusually probing reports.
Nguyen Khoa Diem, head of the party's Culture and
Ideological Commission said some media had not followed its
guidance in reporting official links to a notorious gang led by
crime kingpin Truong Van Cam, alias Nam Cam.
"Some stories and interviews have revealed internal matters of
state organs, which is not allowed," he told the Justice
Ministry's Phap Luat (Law) newspaper in an interview
published on Thursday.
"The media must execute the principle of observing the party's leadership."
In recent months, official newspapers have been dominated by unusually probing reports about the so-called
"Nam Cam" scandal, which diplomats believe have been prompted by a play for power ahead of a cabinet
reshuffle due to be announced in mid-July.
Vietnamese sources say different interest groups appear to have used the case to play out rivalries in official
newspapers.
The cabinet reshuffle due to be approved when a new National Assembly meets on July 17 is expected to see
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai retained but changes in several other portfolios.
A sweeping crackdown against Cam's gang and officials accused of colluding with it began late last year and has
led to the arrest of at least 109 people, including several senior policemen and two state prosecutors.
Senior party officials under investigation include a former top prosecutor and the former head of state radio. Both
lost their jobs last month amid charges in the media that they had lobbied for Cam's release from a re-education
camp in 1997.
Early this week, media reports said the Communist Party had called on two vice ministers of the powerful public
security ministry and the head of the national prison system to explain why they had allowed Cam's release.
Cam was re-arrested in December on 10 charges ranging from murder to drug trafficking, prostitution and
extortion.
Diem said the party had told the media to refrain from "exposing secrets" and causing internal divisions, but added
that it still supported its role in the fight against corruption, which Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh has
made a national priority.
While the Communist Party maintains tight control over the media, especially its political reporting, newspapers
have become increasingly aggressive in their coverage of social issues and lifestyle in recent years as they fight for
readership.
The country now has more than 400 national newspapers and magazines, which increasingly have to rely on
income from advertising rather than state subsidies.
The Communist Party has repeatedly criticised growing commercialisation and sensationalism in the media as the
country pursues market-driven reforms launched in the mid-1980s.
Reuters - June 21, 2002.
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