DECISION

IDENTIFIERS OF “SOCIAL NEWS” MAGAZINES, “SOCIAL NEWS” AGGREGATOR WEBSITES, “SOCIAL NEWS” SOCIAL NETWORKS, AND SIGNS OF “PRIVATIZED" JOURNALISM

MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

Pursuant to Law on Journalism dated April 5, 2016;

Pursuant to Decree No. 17/2017/ND-CP dated February 17, 2017 of Government on functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of Ministry of Information and Communications;

Pursuant to the Plan No. 156-KH/BTGTW dated June 14, 2022 of the Communist Party of Vietnam's Central Committee’s Publicity and Education Commission;

Pursuant to guidance of the Deputy Prime Minister under Document No. 2766/VPCP-KGVX dated May 4, 2022 of the Office of the Government;

Pursuant to remarks of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee’s Publicity and Education Commission under Document No. 3410-CV/BTGTW dated July 21, 2022 and Vietnam Journalist Association under Document No. 176/CV-HNBVN dated July 15, 2022;

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HEREBY DECIDES:

Article 1. Attach the identifiers of “social news magazines”, “social news” aggregator websites, “social news” social networks, and signs of “privatized” journalism to this Decision.

Article 2. This Decision comes into effect from the day of signing.

Article 3. Chief of Office, Director of Authority of Press, Director of Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, and relevant authorities are responsible for the implementation of this Decision./.

PP. MINISTER
DEPUTY MINISTER




Pham Anh Tuan

IDENTIFIERS OF “SOCIAL NEWS” MAGAZINES, “SOCIAL NEWS” AGGREGATOR WEBSITES, “SOCIAL NEWS” SOCIAL NETWORKS, AND SIGNS OF “PRIVATIZED" JOURNALISM

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I. OBJECTIVES:

Law on Journalism, Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP dated July 15, 2013 of the Government, Decree No. 27/2018/ND-CP dated March 1, 2018 on amendments to Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP, and other legislative documents have prescribed functions of newspaper, magazines, news aggregator websites, and social networks.

 However, there have been an increasing number of magazine agencies which operate and publish news in a way that cause them to be confused with newspaper.

Several news aggregator websites display contents, reference, even assign personnel to do field reporting, and publish news and articles in a way that cause them to be confused with online newspapers.

Some social networks display and present information under the guise of social network users despite manufacturing and duplicating such information in the same manner as a journalistic work and thus be confused with online newspapers.

Several news agencies, during operation, have assigned dedicated websites, sections, programs, channels to representative offices, groups of journalists or partners to take over the entire operation or perform joint venture or cooperation in a way that heads of said news agencies fail to exercise their powers and responsibilities, neglect management or transfer the rights to manage, operate, and control contents in part or in whole to partners for personal gains.

All of the above has led to the emergence of “social news” magazines, “social news” aggregator websites, “social news” social networks, and “privatized” journalism.

The identifiers of “social news” magazines, “social news” aggregator websites, “social news” social networks, and “privatized” journalism help coordinating press agencies and central, local press authorities, presiding authorities of press agencies, and organizations, individuals to identify, supervise, rectify, and deal with any signs of deviations in order to create a health environment, regulations and policies assisting press and communication.

II. IDENTIFYING “SOCIAL NEWS” MAGAZINES:

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1. In terms of format:

- Article titles or website titles do not contain the phrase “tạp chí” (magazine) or contain the phrase “tạp chí” (magazine) only in fine prints in thereby causing difficulty recognizing or confusing readers.

- Dedicated websites do not contain the phrase “chuyên trang” (dedicated websites) or is not specified magazines to which the dedicated sections belong or contains solely the presiding authorities thereby causing the dedicated sections to be confused with independent news agencies affiliated to the presiding authorities.

- Name of sections do not convey depth or technicality of the information but instead generic contents carrying nature of press such as: Bản tin hằng ngày (Daily news), bản tin (news), bản tin truyền hình (television news), tin nóng (breaking news), tin hot (hot news), đời sống (life), etc.

- Create accounts, pages, and channels on social media carrying the phrase “báo” (newspaper) or ”truyền hình” (television) thereby causing confusion.

2. In terms of contents:

- Fail to comply with principles and objectives written in the license. Reflect issues or contents other than those under the principles and objectives written in the license (E.g. A magazine specializing in environment sector reports news on bidding in education sector, etc.)

- Science journals report news and real life situations more than they report science-related information, reasoning.

3. In terms of field report operation:

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- Issue letter of introduction without specifying working destination, request total document disclosure in the same manner as investigating, inspecting authority, and pressure constantly via phone calls and/or text messages.

- Do field reporting in groups without prior notice; do field reporting in groups of reporters from various magazines while only 1 reporter sends prior notice.

4. In terms of structure and organization:

- Science journals and magazines open multiple representative offices and employ correspondents, partners in a manner inconsistent with scale of operation.

- Specialized magazines and science journals employ personnel in a manner inconsistent with scale of operation and nature.

III. IDENTIFYING “SOCIAL NEWS” AGGREGATOR WEBSITES AND “SOCIAL NEWS" SOCIAL WEBSITES:

1. In terms of format: The presentation is confused with that of press agencies.

- The domain name is confused with that of press agencies such as Báo (newspaper), Tạp chí (magazine), Tin (news), Tin tức (news), News, Times, Online, Daily, etc.

- News aggregator websites do not specify whether the aggregator websites are web portals, social networks but solely agencies, voice, forums, etc.

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- Social networks are separated into sections: Politic, society, life, culture, entertainment, etc. and upload, aggregate news articles, display articles, titles, contents, images, videos, etc. in the same manner as online newspapers or news aggregator websites.

- Interface of news aggregator websites includes any of the following information: Tòa soạn (publisher), Văn phòng đại diện (representative office), Ban phóng viên (reporter), etc. in the same manner as news agencies, and include the phrase “nhà báo” (journalist), “phóng viên” (news reporter) in the “Người trách nhiệm nội dung” (Editorial director) section.

2. In terms of contents:

- Aggregate news articles from press agencies purposely and more so towards negative news and shocking news; aggregate news from various press agencies, consolidate into articles and write “Tổng hợp (PV)” (Consolidated (Reporter)).

- Social networks have no users interacting, sharing information or share articles of administrators which are written in a way confused with news articles.

3. In terms of technicality:

- Produce news in the same manner as newspaper, transfer to press agencies for publishing online, and be reuploaded by news aggregator websites in order to legitimize the information sources.

- News articles uploaded on information portal prior to be published on press works are referenced as articles.

- Social networks produce news articles in the same manner as press agencies and publish news articles via user upload (no more than 20 uploading accounts per page).

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Send personnel to agencies, entities to gather news and materials for writing articles, producing media products in the same manner as reporters and correspondents.

5. In terms of personnel:

- Editorial directors and personnel of news aggregator websites also act as reporters, editors of press agencies.

- News aggregator websites and social networks have a large number of personnel entering into journalist employment contracts.

IV. SIGNS OF “PRIVATIZATION" IN JOINT PRESS OPERATION

Press agencies hand over dedicated websites, sections, programs, channels to representative offices, reporters, or partners for total responsibility for operation and joint venture in a way where heads of press agencies neglect management or authorize, transfer the right to manage, coordinate, decide the contents of dedicated websites, sections, programs, and channels in part or in whole to partners for personal gains.

1. In case of online newspapers and magazines:

- Cooperating entities are evidently provided with access to servers to upload, edit, or remove news and articles.

- The cooperation generates drastically more economic, commercial, and influential benefits for the cooperating entities than it does for press agencies.

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- Press agencies issue letter of introduction to personnel of cooperating entities for performance of journalistic work.

- The number of news and articles covering fields, criteria of cooperating entities uploaded on products of press agencies are disproportionate to that covering fields, criteria of press agencies uploaded on products of press agencies.

2. In case of radio and television:

- Enterprises communicating, advertising programs, program channels cooperate with radio stations, television stations in the programs, program channels and on other media in a manner causing audiences and listeners to consider enterprises’ work as journalistic in nature.

- Enterprises upload news programs and television programs that they have produced on foreign social media./.

Quyết định 1418/QĐ-BTTTT năm 2022 về Tiêu chí nhận diện "báo hóa" tạp chí, "báo hóa" trang thông tin điện tử tổng hợp, "báo hóa" mạng xã hội và biểu hiện "tư nhân hóa" báo chí do Bộ trưởng Bộ Thông tin và Truyền thông ban hành