Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam News Agency

Thông tấn xã Việt Nam
Agency overview
Formed	1945 (1945)
Jurisdiction	Vietnam
Headquarters	Hanoi
Agency executive	Nguyễn Đức Lợi, General Director
Parent agency	Government of Vietnam
Website	news.vnanet.vn

The Vietnam News Agency (VNA), a governmental agency, is the official state news provider of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

As the only news agency of the whole country, the state-run VNA is responsible for publishing official information and documents of the party and state, providing information in service of the party leadership and state management, while collecting and providing news via various forms to the mass media agencies, the public and readers of all kinds, both at home and abroad.

The VNA is headquartered at 5 Lý Thường Kiệt Street, Hanoi, in the National News Centre. The organisation’s southern and central representative offices are located at 120 Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai Street, Hồ Chí Minh City, and 28 Lê Thánh Tông Street, Đà Nẵng .

History

The VNA is a media complex consisting of 32 affiliates, including news units (five editorial departments and two source news centres), various publication and press bodies (one publishing house and nine newspapers), and multi-media units (a television channel and e-portal), together with five news support centres and two printing, trade and services companies.

Boasting a network of 63 bureaus in all the cities and provinces nationwide and 30 overseas bureaus across the five continents, the VNA has a strong contingent of reporters and editors working all over the country and in most of the key locations around the world, which is its unique advantage.

With more than 60 media products by more than 1,000 reporters and editors out of its 2,400-strong staff, the VNA is now the media office having the largest number of products and forms in the country: bulletins, photos, television programmes, dailies, weeklies, monthlies, magazines, pictorials, books, TV channel, e-newspapers and information programmes on mobile platforms.

The agency also delivers news in the largest number of languages. In addition to official Vietnamese-language news provided for domestic and foreign media outlets, stories for foreign service are written in English, Chinese, French and Spanish, not to mention print and e-newspapers in four other foreign languages, namely Lao, Korean, Japanese and Russian. That’s why the VNA is now regarded as the most important Vietnamese external news centre.

The VNA now maintains bilateral and multilateral partnerships with more than 40 international media organisations, including AFP, Reuters, AP, Itar-Tass, Xinhua, Yonhap, Kyodo News and Prensa Latina. It is a member of the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool (NANAP), the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and the ASEAN News Exchange (ANEX). In June 2014, the VNA started collaboration with the Italian news agency Agenzia Giornalistica Italia.

The VNA is also tasked with publishing currently eight printed materials in eight state-recognised ethnic languages in Vietnam.

Performing its function as the state news agency, the VNA supplies the latest official domestic and international news to major partners while satisfying the demand for information through various means, including the leading print and e-newspapers, online news and the television channel VNews. The VNA retains its position as the mainstream information source which guides public opinion, and the strategic and trustworthy information centre of the party and state, contributing to national construction, development and defence.

• The VNA is the government’s official mouthpiece about domestic and international issues. It is entitled to announce the state’s official stance on current events and correct the information not suitable to the national interest or misinformation. When necessary, it is allowed to release statements refuting distortions. (Decree 88/2013/ND-CP dated 1 August 2013 by the Government on the functions and tasks of the Vietnam News Agency). • “Domestic press and media outlets must use the Vietnam News Agency’s official information in accordance with existing regulations”. • “Ministries, agencies, localities and units concerned are responsible for proactively prioritising and providing the Vietnam News Agency with the latest and most accurate information and materials to ensure the best service to the Party leadership and the Government management so as to bring Party and State’s guidelines and policies to the public in a rapid and accurate manner.” (Excerpts from Decision No.1441 by the Prime Minister on enhancing the role of the Vietnam News Agency, issued on 14 September 2009).

On 15 September 1945, less than two weeks after President Ho Chi Minh delivered the Declaration of Independence at Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi, the full text of the document and a list of the members of provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam were published in Vietnamese, English and French and circulated worldwide from the Bach Mai wireless transmission station, under the initials VNTTX (representing the Vietnamese name ‘Viet Nam Thong Tan Xa’), VNA (Vietnam News Agency) and AVI (Agence Vietnammien D’Information), informing the world of the birth of the new Vietnam.

That is the content of the first transmissions by the VNTTX, the first name of the Vietnam News Agency. 15 September has since been recognised as the tradition day of the VNA. Before 1945, news agencies were unavailable in Vietnam, leaving official news about the country at the hands of the French and other western agencies. Therefore, the VNA is the first news agency to be founded in Vietnam.

The Liberation News Agency - the official news organisation run by the Southern National Liberation Front for South Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam was established on 12 October 1960.

Following the reunification of the country, the Liberation News Agency merged with the VNTTX. On 12 May 1977, a resolution released by the National Assembly Standing Committee of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam officially changed the Vietnamese name of the new agency to TTXVN, which has since been performing the role of the only news agency in Vietnam to this day.

Since its establishment, the VNA’s history has been inextricably linked to the revolutionary cause, national liberation and reconstruction of Vietnam. There is not any other press agency that has had as many martyrs as the VNA. During the wars for national independence and construction, some 450 Vietnamese journalists laid down their lives, more than 260 of them working for the VNA. They include Tran Kim Xuyen, the first leader of the VNA and the first journalist-martyr of Vietnam’s revolutionary journalism, who died in 1947 in Chuong My, formerly Ha Tay district; and Bui Dinh Tuy, Deputy Director of the Liberation News Agency who died in 1967 in southeastern Trang Dau and later a Ho Chi Minh City street was named after the journalist, the first of such case in Vietnam.

Throughout the nearly seven decades of fighting, construction and development closely linked with the country’s historic milestones, the VNA is the first press agency awarded the titles “Labour Hero in the renewal period” and “Hero of the People’s Armed Forces”. Additionally, it has also been honoured twice with the Gold Star Order, a Ho Chi Minh Order, along with many other Vietnamese and international honours.

About the agency

Press and news publications of the VNA

Upholding its prideworthy historic tradition, the VNA has been constantly working towards becoming one of the most prestigious news agencies in the region. Under the model of a modern media syndicate, the VNA offers a diverse range of information in the three professional sections as follows:

1. Press information section (source news):

With the role of a “State news bank”, the VNA performs its function as the State news agency and provides official and mainstream news for its partners at home and abroad via seven units and with nearly 30 news products of the following kinds:

Domestic News Department: with a network of the 63 bureaus in cities and provinces nationwide, the department updates daily current events covering politics, diplomacy, socio-culture, science-technology and the environment, particularly the Party and State’s guidelines and polices. It is also responsible for correcting wrongful information in the public domain.

• Domestic news (continuously updated on the web portal news.vnanet.vn) • Internal reference report (breaking domestic events and issues of concern)

World News Department: together with a system of the 30 news bureaus in the five continents around the world, it uploads daily world and regional news in line with the Party and State’s official stance on the website news.vnanet.vn while publishing periodicals and some television programmes. • World news (daily) • Special reference documents (daily) • Express news (published in the morning and afternoon everyday) • World reference news (daily, except Sunday) • World opinion on Vietnam (weekly) • Specific reference documents (monthly) • World issues (monthly) • Internal reference reports (world news published daily, except weekends) • World television news • Television column The World 360 (weekly)

Economic News Department: in collaboration with home and foreign bureaus, it provides updated current and special news about economics, finance and the stock market in Vietnam and the world at the site news.vnanet.vn. At the same time, it also publishes two periodicals and a television programme. • Vietnam and World Economics weekly (every Thursday) • Economic reference news (daily) • Television programme Economic Focus (weekly)

News Department for Foreign Service: spreads daily official news on Vietnam (articles and television news) worldwide in different languages on news.vnanet.vn

• English-language news http://en.vietnamplus.vn

• Chinese-language news http://cn.vietnamplus.vn

• French-language news http://fr.vietnamplus.vn

• Spanish-language news http://es.vietnamplus.vn

• Television news programmes (English and Chinese news daily, French and Spanish news weekly) http://vnews.vnanet.vn

Press Photography Department: with a contingent of professional photo journalists and correspondents at home and abroad, it supplies up-to-date press photos about domestic and world events to media outlets, or posts them on news.vnanet.vn. As a national photo archive, the department is storing a huge number of images, including millions taken over the past half-century. • Press photos • Archive photos • Television section 24h Current Event photos (daily)

Vietnam News Agency Television Centre (VNews): working with VNA units and domestic and overseas bureaus, VNews provides news in different languages for partners at home and abroad. VNews is one of the wo units (together with Vietnam Television) assigned by the State to edit the content of news by foreign broadcasters to be aired in Vietnam. • Hourly current news http://vnews.vnanet.vn • Editing 20 foreign TV channels

Dabatase - Documentation Centre: issues a range of materials about major current events at home and abroad on the web portal news.vnanet.vn, publishes a periodical and produces some TV programmes. • Archive material (every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) • Television section Moments & Events, History Messages, among others

Moreover, the VNA also publishes several bulletins exclusively designed for Party and State leaders, including the Domestic and World News Review (daily reference documents, except weekends and other holidays), managed by the VNA’s Secretariat.

II- Press - Publication section

As well as being the State news agency, the VNA possesses a press and publication section catering to readers in and outside the country with 10 units and over 30 news products in various languages in the following forms:

Vietnam News Agency Publishing House: releases publications on Party and State’s guidelines and policies, journals, photo books, science-technology books, documentation materials in service of external affairs and international co-operation

The News newspaper: as an information channel of the Government, this leading publication is tasked to cover the in-depth activities of the Politburo and the Steering Committees for the Northwestern, Central Highlands and Southwestern Regions.

• The News (except Sunday) • The News weekend edition (every Thursday) • Electronic News (on baotintuc.vn)

Sports & Culture paper: the first and most popular sports and culture paper in Vietnam, loved by readers across the nation for organising events like the Dedication music awards and the Love for Hanoi awards. • Sports & Culture Daily (weekdays) • Sports & Culture Weekend (every Friday) • Sports, Culture & Men (monthly) • Sports and Culture Online (online edition at thethaovanhoa.vn). • Television programmes Culture Panorama, Planet of Sport (daily) and Culture Radar (weekly).

Science & Technology monthly magazine: offers in-depth information about domestic and international science and technology events and achievements. • Science & Technology (monthly magazine)

Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Region pictorial: is the only bilingual publication so far in Vietnam designed specifically for ethnic minority groups. • Eight bilingual editions of Dan toc & Mien nui are published every month: Vietnamese-Khmer, Vietnamese-Bhanar, Vietnamese-Jrai, Vietnamese-Ede, Vietnamese-Cham, Vietnamese-Mong, Vietnamese-K’ho and Vietnamese-M’nong.

Languages of other ethnic groups are to be added in the future.

Vietnam Pictorial: is Vietnam’s first publication for external services. Launched in 1954, the publication is introduced in the largest number of foreign languages and is the only Vietnamese paper published in Latin American countries (currently Cuba and Mexico). • Vietnam Pictorial has five periodical editions, including those in Vietnamese (monthly), English (monthly), Chinese (monthly), Spanish (bimonthly) and Lao (bimonthly). • Vietnam Pictorial online edition (Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, English, French, Spanish, Japanese and Lao) at vietnam.vnanet.vn. • Dep (Beauty) magazine (monthly supplement)

Viet Nam News: is the only English-language daily in Vietnam and the country’s top foreign service publication. Together with the Vietnam Pictorial, the Viet Nam News’ monthly supplement Outlook is now circulated at the United Nations headquarters in New York. • Viet Nam News (daily, except for Sunday), • Viet Nam News Sunday, • Outlook (monthly) • Viet Nam News Online (online edition at vietnamnews.vn).

Le Courrier du Vietnam: is the only French-language newspaper in Vietnam. Apart from its online edition updated daily, it is also published weekly in the form of a printed magazine. • Le Courrier du Vienam weekly (every Thursday) • Le Courrier du Vietnam Online (at lecourrier.vn) • TV programme “Francophone Space” (weekly)

Vietnam Law & Legal Forum: is the only publication on Vietnamese law published in a foreign language in the country currently. This is the only press agency in Vietnam that issues the Official Gazette, the only English translation of the Vietnamese legal bulletin Cong Bao. • Vietnam Law & Legal Forum monthly (English, online edition at vietnamlaw.vnanet.vn) • English translation of Cong Bao (tri-weekly)

Vietnam-Korea Times weekly: The only Korean-language newspaper in Vietnam (released by the Vietnam Pictorial). • Vietnam-Korea Times published every Tuesday, online edition at viethantime.vn)

III. Television and Online Information Section

Over the recent years, the VNA has worked hard to diversify its forms of media to meet the increasing demands for information by the Party and State in the new context. The efforts have generated positive outcomes, especially in television and online information.

VNA TV Channel (VNews): is the first news-only television channel in Vietnam.

Produced by the VNA Television Centre with the engagement of almost all of information units of the VNA, as well as 93 bureaus based in localities nationwide and countries across the world, VNews updates news in a continuous, timely and accurate manner on outstanding domestic, regional and world events. VNews has become a favourite TV channel of the public nationwide and is listed by the Ministry of Information and Communications as one of the key TV channels performing the political and communication tasks of Vietnam.

VietnamPlus e-newspaper http://vietnamplus.vn airing at the vietnamplus.vn, this is one of the websites offering national official information, which is visited by the highest number of readers from the widest variety of countries. It is the largest multilingual online newspaper in Vietnam, with news presented in Vietnamese, English, Chinese, French and Spanish. VietnamPlus is also one of the websites that has the highest number of source news stories reused by other websites in Vietnam.

VNA online portal at news.vnanet.vn: this is the official online portal of the Vietnam News Agency, which continuously updates fresh news and photos in different languages. The website is also a gateway for press agencies and readers to register and subscribe to the VNA’s services and access its abundant publications.

As well as the online newspaper VietnamPlus and the VNA portal news.vnanet.vn, almost all of press agencies under the VNA, especially newspapers, have introduced their own online editions. These are not merely the online version of the printed publications, but electronic newspapers in their own right which publish information and news around the clock.

The network of VNA websites has become one of the most important channels transferring minute-by-minute information from the VNA to readers around the country and the world.

Through website xembao.vn managed by the VNA Technical Centre, readers can access printed publications of the VNA in the form of e-newspapers. With computers or mobile devices, they can enjoy the PFD pages of the publications anywhere in the world.

As a national bank of information, the VNA provides reliable information of strategic importance to partners who specialise in offering news via mobile devices in the telecommunication network.

The VNA’s operational efficiency is thanks to the active and proactive work by supporting units, including the following five centres: - VNA Technical Centre - VNA Profession Training Centre - VNA Media Development Centre - VNA Informatics Centre, and - VNA International Cooperation Centre The contributions of the following consultancy units are decisive in the success of the VNA as the national news agency: - Secretariat and Editorial Department, - Organisation and Human Resources Department, - Administrative Affairs Office, - Planning and Finance Department, and - Inspection Department

The above-mentioned units, as well as VNA Representative Offices for the South and the central region-Central Highlands, are core pieces that help ensure the smooth flow of information, while allowing the large-scale media complex to operate smoothly. This has helped the VNA build an advanced technological infrastructure with well-equipped facilities. The agency has also developed a team of journalists with firm political resolve, high professional proficiency, social responsibility and a professional work ethic.

VNA Printing Section With a modern printing machinery system and skilled staff, two printing enterprises of the VNA - the ITAXA Printing Company based in Ho Chi Minh City and the Printing and Trade Company in Hanoi – are trustworthy and prestigious firms in the country. The VNA also has an offset printing facility located in the central city of Da Nang.

The VNA printing section operates with the major purpose of producing bulletins, magazines, newspapers and other VNA publications on schedule. It also provides services to outside customers who are seeking a commitment to quality and professionalism./.

External links

• Official site of the Vietnamese News Agency's e-newspaper
• VNews channel
• Official site of Vietnamese News Agency
• Classifieds