Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on June 19 asked the press offices to manifest their core values of providing verified news and intensify the fight against fabrications as well as fake news.

This is the mission of the press and the fight will affirm its role in the new period, the Government leader stressed during a working session in Hanoi with the executive board of the Vietnam Journalists’ Association (VJA), on the occasion of the 94th anniversary of the Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day (June 21).

President of the association Thuan Huu briefed PM Phuc on the operation of the VJA in the recent past which has attracted special attention from the Party and State, while Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung proposed that telecommunications firms reduce the rental of broadband internet transmission lines for press offices.

For his part, Director General of the Vietnam News Agency Nguyen Duc Loi reported to the PM the difficulties in terms of resources. He also said the VNA is perfecting a fact-checking project to detect fake news.

PM Phuc affirmed that the socio-economic achievements of the country in the recent past were made possible with active and important contributions by the press, and spoke highly of the operation of the association. He also pointed out that a number of newspapers did not respect their principles and violated the professional ethics as well as the law.

The press should be a pioneer in the major and new issues of the country and the Party, the leaders said and stressed that the revolutionary press must reflect the main stream of the society, namely the building and protection of the socialist system and the building of a fair, democratic and civilized country as well as the preservation of the national culture.

Also at the session, the PM further said the State and the Government will create a new mechanism for the press to further develop.-VNA