~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Vietnam set to launch live radio sex phone-in show

HANOI - Communist Vietnam will open a ``Window on Love'' on Sunday when it launches a landmark national radio sex phone-in programme, an editor said.

For the first month the half-hour show will be pre-recorded, but it is scheduled to go live from April, the editor from Radio the Voice of Vietnam said on Friday.

``Window on Love'' will for the first time give ordinary people access to national broadcasting, offering them the opportunity to ask questions related to sex, relationships and reproductive health, said the editor, who declined to be identified.
``In terms of technique this is very new,'' he told Reuters. ``I think this type of programme will attract a lot of young people...This will be a new playground for them.''

``We are trying to start live broadcasts in April, but it depends on the upcoming four experimental programmes.''
Discussions about sex are highly sensitive in Vietnam, where the subject is generally taboo. Sex education in schools is limited.
The editor said once the show went live callers would be subject to a 20-second delay before their voices aired. A health expert and a psychologist will answer the questions.
National broadcaster Radio the Voice of Vietnam has no live phone-ins, although a few provincial stations have experimented with limited phone-ins or music request programmes.
Live broadcasts in the country are few. Official media are strictly controlled with editors and journalists generally forced to exercise tough self-censorship.

Television shows live football and occasional gatherings of the country's National Assembly. Most shows, including the national news, are pre-recorded.

``Window on Love'' has been developed with help from the United Nations Population Fund and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Reuters - March 05, 1999.