Authorized by the Prime Minister, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung has released a government report on the outcomes of the implementation of the National Assembly's resolution and inquiries related to the information and communications sector.

Regarding newspaper restructuring, the re-arrangement of press agencies has been basically completed. The checking and re-issuance of press operation licenses has been carried out regularly, strictly following required procedures and ensuring compliance with the law. 

After re-licensing, the purposes, principles and functions of press agencies have become clearer. The agencies must focus on providing information in the fields of operation of their governing bodies.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has re-granted over 300 licenses to newspapers and journals since January 1, 2020.

The Prime Minister has instructed MIC to draw up a plan to clear the problem of ‘newspaperization’ when professional journals or bulletins, which have to provide information about certain fields and serve professionals in the fields, operate like a newspaper, providing daily news, which is not within their function.

MIC has released criteria to recognize newspapers, journals, social networks and news websites to differentiate the functions and the roles of the publications.

Since 2022, MIC has issued 15 decisions on administrative fines on media establishments that did not strictly follow their purpose and principles shown in the licenses, totaling VND889 million. One journal was fined and forced to suspend publications for three months.

The ministry has also released two decisions on sanctioning two individuals who did not observe the principles when assigning reporters to implement duties.

Press agencies have removed thousands of items of news and articles which had content unsuitable to their functions.

The governing bodies of the publications have been aware of their laxity and failure to fully take the governing body's responsibilities in directing press agencies and have committed to fix the problem.

From the beginning of the year to June, MIC granted 45 licenses to general news websites (down 41 percent compared with the same period last year), and 28 licenses to establish social networks (down 58 percent).

Also, MIC strictly handled the ‘newspaperization’ cases, imposed administrative fines in 100 cases, totaling VND1.5 billion, and revoked licenses in three cases.

The ministry has also instructed its agencies to suspend 70 domain names and prevent 45 cases of domain names violating regulations in the field of electronic information. A list of 77 organizations and businesses that set up news websites and social networks with signs of ‘newspaperization’ were cited for supervision.

Trong Dat