http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GE03Ae01.html May 3, 2005
SPEAKING FREELY Vietnam's press pushes for independence By George Esper and James Borton Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing. South Vietnam, although backed by the power of the United States and half a million American troops, fell to the communist-led North 30 years ago. The world watched on television that chaotic day, April 30, 1975, when the Saigon government surrendered. Time has changed much about Vietnam. Early bitterness on both sides has given way to improved relations between Vietnam and the United States. Despite the legacy of war and political constraints, Vietnam's own media are slowly helping the nation face new challenges toward becoming a global player and aspirant to World Trade Organization (WTO) membership. During a rice shortage in the 1980s, many Vietnamese went hungry; some poor survived on livestock feed. Now, Vietnamese people purchase the latest mobile phones and Honda motorbikes and log onto the Internet for games and news. Each visit by Americans reaffirms Vietnam's economic, educational and cultural ties to its former enemy. As war memories faded, battlefields were turned into new housing, farmland and tourist attractions. For young people, there are no memories. More than half of Vietnam's 84 million citizens are under the age of 25. The first generation in nearly 50 years to come of age in peacetime has dreams for the future that don't conform to Communist Party slogans. At a time when American public support for and trust in the media is eroding, Vietnam's young, Internet-savvy reporters and editors eagerly strive to improve professional skills, enhance integrity and use technology to integrate with the West and globalization. Online reporting has been adopted by many of Vietnam's major media, and digital-era publishing has become widely popular. At the modern Hanoi headquarters of VietnamNet, a popular bilingual news website, witness a new generation of Vietnamese in front of their Sony Vaio computers, surfing English-language online news websites. This state-controlled digital media company's charismatic publisher and editor-in-chief, Nguyen Ahn Tuan, a 43-year-old Harvard Advanced Management Program graduate and chief executive of the state-owned enterprise Value Added Software Company (VASC), represents the face of Vietnam's digital media revolution. Then there's Le Minh Quoc, chief online editor for Vietnam News Agency, who has established a weblog, www.vietnamjournalism.com, to promote media standards, ethics and management, and to establish a forum for journalists. In a recent conversation at a bustling cafe in Hanoi's Old Quarter, where nearby Internet cafes were jammed with young Vietnamese, Minh spoke quietly, in perfect English: "I set up this site to share all I know on journalism with my colleagues, especially young reporters and editors; we want to become better reporters on the dynamic changes taking place in our country since the war ended." Progress in Vietnam is not easy to chart; often a step forward seems followed by a move back toward repressive party control. But with more Vietnamese journalists expressing interest in serious news reporting - shunning the party line and doing away with such onerous habits as gratuities for journalistic "favors" - there is reason for optimism. This new generation hungers for education, including in journalism, for information technology, and, most of all, for a chance to study in the United States, which they see as the place for learning what matters most. Here are specific recommendations to help meet Vietnam's media needs, to prepare its journalists to deal with new digital technologies, and to encourage growth of a professional and independent press, essential for grass-roots democracy: The US State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) continues to foster mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through international education and training programs. West Virginia University's (WVU's) Perley Issac Reed School of Journalism actively encourages support from the State Department's Public Diplomacy Department to support media training programs in partnership with Vietnam National University's Faculty of Journalism and the Hanoi University of Foreign Studies. The planned WVU Center for the Study of Emerging Media in Vietnam seeks financial support from the United States Agency for International Development to facilitate the placement of media trainers and academic exchanges. Before the renovation policy known as doi moi, the Vietnamese media were regarded as merely a mouthpiece for the Communist Party. With increased market reforms and globalization, Vietnam's media now want to improve journalistic standards and focus on formerly proscribed topics. Professional media training and programs developed by the WVU center will equip more Vietnamese journalists with the knowledge they need to report on official corruption, poverty, environmental issues, health care, integration into the world market, and cultural safeguards. In these ways, Vietnam's press can contribute to building a stronger civil society. WVU is working with Maryanne Reed, dean of the Perley Issac Reed School of Journalism, to establish a professional and academic exchange program with Vietnam and a Center for the Study of Emerging Media in Vietnam. She has ably pursued these goals, which originated with Christine Martin, former dean of WVU's School of Journalism and now vice president of institutional advancement. The project is welcomed by Vietnam's own media gatekeepers. "Information communication technologies are contributing to major shifts in our culture, society and media," said VietnamNet founder Nguyen Ahn Tuan. Controlling Vietnam's nearly 700 newspapers and 400 periodicals, the Communist Party has no room for private media. The press remains, for all purposes, a party outlet for educating and filtering information - not for independent news reporting. But there are clear signs of an emerging cadre of intrepid newspaper editors and professional journalists such as Tuan and Minh, who welcome the adoption of Western-style reporting standards and the promise of an independent press. George Esper covered the war in Vietnam for The Associated Press for 10 years. He retired in 2000, and since then, he has been teaching journalism at his alma mater, West Virginia University. James Borton, an independent foreign correspondent and frequent contributor to Asia Times Online, also serves as a media adviser to West Virginia University's Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism's planned Center for the Study of Emerging Media in Vietnam. He is also working on a book on Asian digital media. Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing. (Copyright 2005, George Esper and James Borton) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Does he tell you he loves you when he's hitting you? Abuse. 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