Hanoi (VNA) - Throughout its 75-year history, the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) hasalways been accompanying the nation and joining hands with the whole Party,people, and army, along the nine-year resistance war against the French thatculminated in the resounding Dien Bien Phu victory, as well as the 21-yearbattle against the US that ultimately led to the Great Spring Victory in 1975and the reunification of the country and the taking of the path towardssocialism.

Both witness of and contributor to history

During Vietnam’s struggles for national independence, journalists from VNA,known as “Viet Nam Thong tan xa” (VNTTX) at the time, becamejournalist-soldiers who not only reported events as witnesses but also directlyengaged in such events.

Throughout the nine years of the anti-French resistance war, the fledgling VNAstaff, small as it was, both fought the enemy and ensured information andcommunications tasks were also completed. It overcame numerous difficulties,moving its base 21 times to avoid the enemy, during which reporters fought fortheir survival and moved equipment at the same time, maintaining the flow ofinformation to serve the Party and President Ho Chi Minh. Many VNA members laiddown their lives, including Tran Kim Xuyen, Vice Director of the Ministry ofHome Affairs’ Vietnam Information Department and the first leader of VNA, whodied in 1947, becoming the first VNA journalist-martyr.

 

After 1954, VNA entered into a new period of development. Along with thereporting of news on land reform, industry and trade renovation, and thebuilding of socialism in the north, it also took charge of covering thestruggle in the south against the US forces and the US-backed administration.As the US escalated its attacks on the north, VNA arranged its forces and stoodready to fight in protection of its bases, while strengthening its equipment tomake it more professional while expanding its coverage of news for domestic andforeign readers.

In early 1960, the revolution in the south entered a phase of massive uprising.Along with completing its duty in terms of news coverage, VNA also preparedinfrastructure and personnel for the establishment of an official provider ofnews of the revolution in the south.

On October 12, 1960, the provider came into being under the name “Thong tan xaGiai phong” (Liberation News Agency), the official mouthpiece and news providerof the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam.

Throughout the war against the US for the national salvation and theconstruction of socialism in the north, VNA did not miss any important domesticor international event and kept the information flow running unceasingly, evenduring the most difficult moments.

VNA reporters who found themselves in the heat of battle reported bravely andheroically on the efforts of the armed forces and the people.

It also sent more than 450 key officials, reporters, news editors, andtechnicians to the southern battlefield, along with hundreds of others whojoined troops fighting on battlefields in the south as well as in Cambodia andLaos.

VNA reporters were present at all battlefields, and many of the photos theyshot and news articles they posted became historical items.

On the southern battlefields, Liberation News Agency officials, reporters, andtelegraphers held on resiliently in tense areas and promptly reported news andimages of the struggle, contributing to encouraging people in the nation torise up against the US invaders.

The Liberation News Agency was also the major media force covering theactivities of two missions of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and theProvisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam in the diplomaticstruggle against the US and Saigon delegations at the Paris Peace Conference,serving the negotiation process and providing supporting opinions at home andamong the international community on the road to the historic victory in 1975.

In the struggle for national liberation and reunification, more than 260reporters, news editors, and technicians laid down their lives on battlefieldsfrom Viet Bac to Ca Mau and also during international missions, accounting formore than 25 percent of the staff of the agency during wartime and 80 percentof all the journalist-martyrs. The great sacrifice they made is also a pridefor the agency in its contributions to the liberation of the south and thereunification of the country.

During the northern and southwestern border wars following the nationalreunification, VNA reporters were again joining the soldiers to provide timelynews and photos. They also worked in areas with sensitive issues relating toreligion, ethnic minorities, and remote regions, to provide timely and accuratenews to leaders of the Party and the State, contributing to ensuring politicalsecurity as well as social order and safety, thus safeguarding the country’sintegrity.

A pioneering role on the information-ideology battlefield

After the liberation of the south and national reunification, VNA and theLiberation News Agency merged into the national news agency with the name of“Thong tan xa Viet Nam” (VNA), opening up a new period of national constructionand defence on the path towards socialism.

Promoting the heroic tradition, VNA now acts as the strategic and trustworthyinformation centre of the Party and the State and a prestigious news agency inthe region.

It is one of the six major national multi-media agencies. With more than 60media products from over 1,000 reporters and editors inside and outside thecountry out of a staff of 2,300 in total, VNA has the largest number ofinformation products and forms in the country, including print media, audiomaterial, pictorials, TV coverage, and e-newspapers.

During the country’s “Doi Moi” (renewal) process, VNA has shown its pioneeringrole on the information-ideology battlefield. The agency popularised theGovernment’s orientations and policies as well as viewpoints on nationaleconomic reform, encouraging the industrialisation and modernisation as well asthe great achievements recorded in the renovation.

VNA has provided the public with a panorama of the unprecedented “struggle”against the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam and the world as a whole in anaccurate manner through its media products over the past nearly a year.

Plunging themselves into pandemic hotspots and accepting being away from theirfamilies, VNA reporters have been working day and night during the socialdistancing period, facing the threat of infection to accompany medical staff inthe frontlines. It has been a great information campaign requiring the agencyto mobilise its entire resources and confirming its position as a key nationalmedia agency.

Through its media products, VNA has made effective contributions to the guidingof ideology and public opinion, consolidating people’s trust in the leadershipof the Party and the State, fighting negative phenomena and wrongfulallegations from hostile forces both at home and abroad, protecting territorialsovereignty and maintaining socio-political stability. 

Throughout its development, VNA has performed strongly its role as the keyprovider of news for foreign services. With continuous improvements in bothformat and language in its news for foreign readers, VNA has become better atproviding news in various languages, spreading the official voice of Vietnam tothe global community and enhancing the country’s position.

Currently VNA boasts bilateral and multilateral partnerships with more than 40news agencies and large international media organisations and is a member ofthe Executive Board of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA),which affirms its unceasingly rising role at regional and global media forums.

It also maintains the largest photo archive in the country, with more than amillion valuable documentary images, including tens of thousands of originalphotos on the country’s revolutionary struggle, along with more than 5,000photos of President Ho Chi Minh and thousands of others reflecting the 54ethnic groups in Vietnam.

As the country has entered a period of industrialisation, modernisation, andinternational integration, VNA has moved itself into a new era of developmentin organisation, management, operation, news production, and equipment. Thegrowth in science and technology has opened up a new period for thecommunications sector in general and VNA in particular, marking theintroduction of various new forms of news spread ever-faster. This has broughtabout both opportunities and challenges, requiring VNA reporters to renew theirmindsets and working methods to maintain their readiness and activeness toensure the highest efficiency of the official information flow, namelyaccuracy, timeliness and righteousness in the current multi-direction"ocean" of information.

In the coming years, VNA will continue its reform and development, maintainingits role as the official media agency of the Party and the State with thefunction of guiding information flows. To this end, it plans to develop itselfas a multimedia complex while continuing to consolidate its source informationunits, improve the efficiency of representative offices, develop newinformation forms, modernise its infrastructure, strengthen its internationalcooperation, and upgrade its position and role in the region and the world.

Awards VNA has received include:

The titles of: 
Labour Hero in Renewal Period (2001);
Hero of the People’s Armed Forces (2005);
Hero of the People’s Armed Forces (2020).

Orders:
Gold Star Order (1995);
Ho Chi Minh Order (1990, 2010);
Independence Order, First Class (1980);
Three Resistance War Orders, First Class;
Nine Labour Orders, First Class;
Fatherland Protection Order, First Class;
Two Liberation Orders, First Class;
First-Class Isala Order, presented by the Party and State of Laos./.