Getting the scoop in Vietnam
HO CHI MINH CITY - As in other communist-ruled countries, newspapers in Vietnam are expected to support the ruling party and government while also playing the role of watchdog against such evils as corruption in high places.
But a piquant situation has developed in which reporters not only find themselves unable to carry out such an onerous task, but are beginning to get involved in cases of corruption themselves.
A case in point is the alleged deep involvement in a football match-fixing scandal last month by a reporter for the popular city publication Sports in Ho Chi Minh City. The incident tinged the congress of Vietnam's Association of Journalists (VAJ), which ended in the national capital of Hanoi on August 13 and somewhat strained a closing resolution hailing the role of journalists in making society more transparent.
On the other hand, many journalists at the congress complained they were coming under too much pressure from local leaders when it came to reporting fairly on corruption-related issues.
Addressing delegates at the congress, the general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), Nong Duc Manh, hailed journalists for lending support to the exposure of corruption and for creating an environment conducive to improved business, though it sounded more like a statement of expectations than of praise.
"The media has made a crucial contribution to the improvement of Vietnam's international image and created a favorable environment for the implementation of party and state foreign policy," Manh said.
He clearly meant that Vietnam's media are considered the loudspeaker of the party and government and therefore are expected to express the concerns of these organs and promote their policies.
The VAJ congress itself ruled that journalists should observe nine codes of morality, starting with being "truthful" to the VCP and to the country.
As corruption is considered one of the evils that hampers the development of the nation, the role of the media is thus to condemn and fight it actively.
Accordingly, over the past few years, major newspapers - Thanh Nien, Tuoi Tre, Lao Dong, Nguoi Lao Dong - have regularly run features reporting cases of corruption that involved senior and high- ranking officials.
Some 9,960 cases of corruption involving 4,007 crooked officials have been uncovered in the past 12 years. One minister, five deputy ministers and 14 heads of provinces and cities have been brought to justice on charges of corruption.
The amount of corrupt money involved has also been steadily increasing from a few hundred dollars to several million dollars in deals around oil and gas, banking and textile quota trading.
Manh was prompt to point out some of the media's shortcomings. "Certain publications have failed to provide up-to-date, intelligent writing, while a number of others have become excessively commercialized."
The communist leader especially criticized "a small minority of journalists [who] had forgotten their political and social responsibilities and professional ethics." Although Manh did not mention specific cases, observers said his statement referred to cases where journalists were participants, such as in the football match-fixing case.
The Sports reporter was accused of helping pre-arrange the results of a football match and brokering transactions with football players.
Last year, two reporters, Nguyen Hoang Linh and Vo Quang Thang, were arrested on charges of blackmailing a top official, Tran Mai Hanh, who was alleged to have connections with the mafia-style underworld gang Nam Cam.
In a forum organized to discuss the issue, the deputy editor-in-chief of Quan Doi Nhan Dan (The People's Army) newspaper, Colonel Ho Quang Loi, was emphatic that "'professional ethics formed the very foundation of media".
Le Nguyen Cat, editor-in-chief of Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam (Vietnam Economic Times) newspaper said, "Responsible journalists have to choose what the society helps them choose - what should or should not be said and write articles that are good for the people and the country, without damaging its development, security and social virtue."
That was an admonishment arising from a trend in which Vietnamese journalists are these days conducting a kind of self-censorship so as to ensure that their articles get published.
Although most journalists would wholeheartedly agree with Loi's statement that a "journalist's mission is to find the truth and protect it", it is an ideal they find hard to follow.
For the majority of journalists, to find the truth is hard enough because they are always hampered by hurdles, especially if they are doing the investigation on their own. In general, though, police usually give journalists a helping hand in their anti-corruption struggle.
As in other countries, they do give hand-picked reporters tips (naming the black sheep and what their crimes are). The reporters' task consists mainly of gathering more information, writing articles describing the case and explaining the mechanics of bribery and corruption to readers.
Reporters who do manage to investigate and unearth corruption on their own can expect not only to find hurdles placed in their way but risk being banned from carrying out their duties.
Indeed, the whole issue was the subject of a seminar last month entitled "The role of journalism in the struggle against of corruption", organized by Ap Bac, a newspaper published from the city of My Tho in the Mekong Delta.
An editor from the Dong Thap magazine noted at the seminar that even after several years of implementation, the struggle conducted by newspapers against waste and corruption in the region remained "insignificant".
"In public, they [top-ranking officials] encourage newspapers to combat corruption but when their own prestige or the interests of their own companies are at stake, they rapidly change their tunes," said Ngo Thanh Phong, who edits An Giang magazine.
Phong added that there were cases where reporters had gathered enough documents and proof of corruption, but editors could not publish them because some anh Ba or anh Tu (Vietnamese terms for leaders) had intervened.
"If we dare argue, we will be condemned for shifting away from the party's leadership," Phong said.
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam - Inter Press Service - August 27, 2005.
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