Reins on foreign media loosened HANOI - Vietnam is slowly relaxing its tight restrictions on the activities of foreign media organisations, a trend observers say will create a more vocal and critical indigenous press. A Foreign Ministry official yesterday confirmed that the BBC would be allowed to set up a bureau in Hanoi, and that South Korea's government news agency had been given permission to begin operations. "We have an open door policy. Any international news organisation that wants to set up in Vietnam is welcome," the official said. The last media organisation to be granted a licence was Spain's EFE news agency, which opened its Hanoi bureau in June last year. Several others, including the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Asian Wall Street Journal, have recommenced or will soon recommence operations that were suspended several years ago. Chris Greene, BBC World Service managing editor for Southeast Asia, said the BBC's first application for a bureau licence was submitted in 1993. He said the new Hanoi correspondent was expected to arrive within a few weeks. "There has been a long history of attacks on our Vietnamese-language broadcasts in the local press, but the country is opening up and our Vietnamese-language section is now more aware of the reality of today's Vietnam than perhaps they have been in the past," he said. "But it's taken time for the authorities to get over their suspicions. They've always been edgy about international broadcasters that have a Vietnamese-language service." News gathering remains an often frustrating task, with a prevailing culture of silence and bureaucratic hurdles making information a precious and often elusive commodity. One Hanoi-based Western diplomat agreed that Vietnam was slowly becoming a "normal" country, a process he suggested was being driven by an increasing awareness of its relative isolation from the wider international community. "Recently we have seen surprisingly vigorous debate in the local media that has been quite critical of the country's leadership and its failure to address a range of social and economic problems and to engage the world," he said, adding that an increased presence of international news organisations would add momentum. Although editors are still appointed by the ruling communist party, the state-controlled media are becoming more market-driven as government subsidies are withdrawn. "Journalists are having to write better and more relevant stories in order to make sure their newspapers sell," the diplomat said. Young local journalists are looking increasingly to international publications as a guide to professional standards and in order to identify issues of interest to their readers. "Curriculums at journalism schools here focus too much on the party's history and [ideology] rather than reporting and writing skills," said one young journalist. "Editorial policy is still directed by the party through instructions to editors, but the media, particularly in Ho Chi Minh City, are starting to do more investigative stories that have resulted in many positive changes," he said. By Huw Watkin - The South China Morning Post - June 23, 2000.