Most ministries and branches at central and provincial level were proactive in supplying journalists valuable information in a timely manner.

The conclusion was included in a review of the Ministry of Information and Communication's five-year implementation of regulations on Government spokespersons and provision of information to the media.

The review also looked at four years of carrying out regulation on information co-ordination among the Ministry of Information and Communication and the ministries of finance, planning and investment, trade and industries, foreign affairs and State Bank of Viet Nam.

Enforced following the Prime Minister's decision No 77 in 2007, the regulation was appraised as ensuring information transparency at the administrative bodies.

The view was shared among leaders of many journalism institutions attending the review conference held on Saturday in the central city of Da Nang.

After five years, thirty ministries and branches and 63 provinces have their own spokespeople. However, there were still some spokespeople providing vague and incorrect information to the media.

While the regulation was praised as a legal foundation for press units to approach official information sources, the Ministry of Information and Communication's Deputy Minister Do Quy Doan said some administrative bodies and press organisations still found it difficult to get adequate information.

The conference also heard that some spokespeople still made some information that was not confidential difficult to access for journalists.

On the other hand, some journalists were said to be impatient, put pressure on spokespeople or subjective writing lead to distorted news.

The ministry required the State bodies to address these weaknesses and asked the above mentioned ministries to co-ordinate better with each other in information supply.

They were urged to appoint the people with journalistic understanding to be spokespersons to improve the quality of the information as well as of press conferences.

The participants asked the ministry to propose to the Government to shorten the time it took for Government officials to respond to press enquiries so that State bodies can orient information in society in a timely manner.

Regulations on payment for spokespeople and their assistants also need to be supplemented. In addition, websites of ministries, branches and provinces' portals must be updated regularly to supply information more quickly and comprehensively, they said.

Source:  VNS