Nghe An (VNA) –The Vietnam Journalists Association (VJA) and the Lao Journalists Association(LJA) co-organised an international workshop in the central province of Nghe Anfrom July 25-28 to discuss ways to improve press activities in the era ofdigital communications.

The event aims to strengthen the friendship andcooperation between the two associations under already signed agreements.

Thuan Huu, Vice Chairman of the Party CentralCommittee’s Commission for Information and Education cum President of theVietnam Journalists Association and Editor-in-Chief of the Nhan dan (People’s)Newspaper, said the traditional friendship, cooperation and solidarity betweenthe two associations have helped to enhance relations between Vietnam and Laos.

Within the framework of bilateral cooperation aswell as the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists (CAJ), the two associations haveclosely worked together, providing inclusively information about the political,economic, and social life of Vietnam and Laos in the cause of national constructionand reform, he said.

The VJA and LJA have been coordinating intraining, including multimedia journalism, to improve capacity and professionalethics of journalists so that they can catch up with the development trend ofmodern journalism in the region and the world, Huu said.

He noted that the Vietnamese and Lao press arefocusing on reflecting political, economic and social issues in the respectivecountry besides major global matters such as regional political conflicts,economic growth, climate change, and environmental issues.

The official also mentioned challenges posed bysocial networks and suggested the Vietnamese and Lao press change their mindsetin the era of digital media.

Phosy Keomanivong, Director of the Lao NationalRadio, said programmes on media outlets must be diversified to meet the needsof society.

It is necessary to promptly refute and respondto reactionary information against the Party and State guidelines and policies,as well as distorted information to create right understanding for society, hestressed.

General Director of Radio the Voice of Vietnam(VOV) Nguyen The Ky said the development of technology and social networkscreates both opportunities and challenges for the press and the whole society.

The press must be quick, but ensure accuracy,humanity and high social responsibility, he stressed.

Ky added that in the era of digital communications,newspapers, radios and televisions are important tools to carry out thefunction of disseminating, educating, connecting, and sharing information andideology on the internet and new forms of communications like Facebook andTwitter.

Deputy General Director of the Vietnam NewsAgency (VNA) Le Quoc Minh presented a report on artificial intelligence (AI)and the press: the world’s trend and the VNA’s strategy, saying that from 2011to 2012, the VNA planned to test automated translation applications.

In early 2019, the test of machine translation wasresumed in some VNA units. The preliminary results showed that it helpedincrease productivity by at least 30 percent. For good translators, the ratecould amount to 200 percent or more.

In October 2018, the VNA’s e-newspaper VietnamPlusofficially launched chatbot application which automatically interacts withreaders, marking a new step of the editorial office in the application of thefourth industrial network in the field of journalism.

This also helped the VNA become the firstofficial press agency in Vietnam to use chatbot to interact with readers, Minhsaid, adding that this app earned VietnamPlus the first prize of the OANA Awardfor Excellence in News Agency Quality at the 44th OANA Executive Board Meetingin April 2019.

VietnamPlus is continuously improving the app,which will be applied for other editorial offices of the VNA, includingVietnamese and foreign language newspapers, he said.

Minh elaborated the VNA’s project is differentfrom those of other e-newspapers in Vietnam. The technology that the VNA isstudying with partners allows the system to automatically summarise an articleand synthesizes summary sections into an audio, he said.

Since mid-2018, the VNA has started implementingthe voice-to-text app, he said, noting that this technology had been studiedfor a long time in the VNA but just tested on audio news. Now, it is tested forvideos. 

Minh also revealed that the VNA is studying theintegration of AI into content management systems (CMS) of its onlinenewspapers.

Sinhpangna Rattanavong, Deputy General Directorof the Lao News Agency (KPL), underlined the close traditional cooperationbetween the KPL and VNA, which, he said, contributes to developing therelations between the two countries.

The two sides have coordinated and providedmutual support to improve the quality of news and images as well as shareexperience in training, building technical infrastructure, and backingjournalists in professional operations, he said.

At the workshop, participants presented theiropinions about how to attract readers and boost press cooperation betweenVietnam and Laos in the era of digital communications.-VNA