Vietnam’s Media Embraces Digital Tools: From the shores of the Red River to Harvard

At a time when American public support for and trust in the media is eroding each day, 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 is a 43-year-old Harvard Advanced Management Program graduate.  His state-owned enterprise VASC Software & Media Company represents the new face of Vietnam's digital media revolution.

Tuan, a friend for six years, is not only regarded as the “father of Vietnam’s Internet” but also the “Larry King of VNN.” He has gone on record a few months ago while visiting Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet and Society  and revealed that his website has a newspaper license which enables its reporters to travel anywhere and interview anyone. According to Tuan, “the leaders of the party provide "guidelines" rather than ruling particular stories in or out.”

According to blogger, Dave Weinberger who attended Tuan’s rousing speech at Harvard, 
the enterprising media gatekeeper, reaffirmed that the Internet is good for democracy in Vietnam, and that its emergence has caused the mainstream media to become more open. Tuan, a bold and brave technocrat, genuinely believes that media can prove to be a force for democracy, including investigation of party corruption.

VietnamNet has an active comments section and receives over 1,000 submissions per day. In conversations, Tuan is hopeful about setting up an official blog-hosting service for the more than 6 million Vietnamese now logging on in the country.

The energetic and charismatic editor is a recipient of numerous awards from various government ministries. He proudly wears his trademark Harvard emblazoned tie, and continues to court Silicon Valley’s successful overseas Vietnamese to return to the shores of Red River and participate in the nation’s emerging and expanding information age.

“Information communication technologies are contributing to major shifts in our culture, society and media,” claims the intrepid Tuan.

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 conversation held this past spring at a bustling cafe in Hanoi's Old Quarter, where nearby Internet cafes were jammed with young Vietnamese, Minh spoke rapidly, in excellent 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." His site is now bilingual.

For sure, there remain some inherent contradictions in Vietnam’s attitude about the media development. The Vietnam Journalists association with over 11,000 licensed journalists are interested in tackling serious issues, but also acknowledge the limitations placed on press freedom.

Although economic reforms continue to spill up and down Highway 1, formerly the Ho Chi Minh trail, authorities of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam still have an iron-clad monopolization on every aspect of the media - including radio, television, newspapers, and access to the Internet, and also arbitrarily can arrest anyone who dares voice opinions other than the official views.

Still there are many who think that after Vietnam’s admission to the World Trade Organization expected in early 2006, that media equitization will commence. More on this, and media mogul IDG’s Patrick McGovern’s bullish plans about Vietnam’s media future.