Pre-examination and post-check of movies online was a hot issue discussed by National Assembly deputies at the end of May in relation to the revised Law on Cinematography. This is a matter of great interest to many people, especially after a number of films on online film platforms were found as having problems related to Vietnamese territorial sovereignty.

Regarding the dissemination of movies, Clause 5, Article 21 of the draft amended Law on Cinematography says: "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism organizes workforce and technical means to organize the examination of movie content, the classification and displaying of classification results, and joins forces with relevant management agencies to take necessary measures to prevent violations of the law.”

Some people say that in addition to measures to prevent the violations of laws, it is necessary to stipulate that movies must be examined before they are allowed to be disseminated online.

VietNamNet spoke to Phuc about the pre-examination and post-check mechanisms.

The management of movies published in cyberspace has been a hot topic of discussion at the ongoing session of the National Assembly. What is your viewpoint as the representative of the state management agency?

Both pre-examination and post-examination are management measures. It is necessary to use management measures to be sure that films, both Vietnam-made and foreign, have content that ensures traditional habits and customs. Some people say there should be post-check only and technical tools must be used to filter violating content. This means that we need to use both technical solutions and human resources to do this. If we have good post-check tools, we will be able to do the pre-examination well.

Do you mean that pre-examination is possible?

Pre-examination is being implemented with films imported into Vietnam by the subjects disseminating films, which are press agencies. This method is being applied and we have a good workforce to do the pre-examination. This is not the job of the state, but press agencies. They can do this. As for post-examination, we need to have technical solutions to deal with films in violation and pull these films down.

Currently, opinions vary about pre- and post-examination. There are many films and films that not only appear on service providers but also on platforms, such as YouTube. Therefore, if implementing pre-examination, there will be many films, and this will put pressure on state management.

Regarding post-examination, if this cannot be done well, this will have a big cultural impact. Meanwhile, at this time, movies at the cinema and on television are pre-examined.

As the management agency, we believe that principles need to be respected, i.e. films must be edited and classified, no matter if they are foreign or Vietnam made. This work is on the Vietnamese subject side. The Vietnamese subject later can assign film suppliers to edit the films in accordance with the criteria it sets, and if the editors don’t do this well, the editing will be assigned to others such as press agencies.

Film dissemination and distribution is a conditional business. Therefore, foreign companies, when providing films to Vietnam and creating revenue in Vietnam, have to observe requirements on content editing and register their operations in Vietnam. In other words, they must obtain legal status in Vietnam. This needs to be legalized.

If individuals and institutions don’t register in Vietnam, they will be considered as illegal. If so, we will block their services.

Some experts suggest that there should be sanctions on violators, depending on the levels of violations by cross-border platforms. The law needs to stipulate appropriate forms of sanctions to deter violations, including the blocking of services.

The other issue is the same treatment toward Vietnam’s and foreign films. Vietnamese film distributors complain that the current regulations seem to favor foreign films and the problem needs to be settled in the new law.

Our viewpoint is that both Vietnamese and foreign films need to be equally treated with the same legal framework for both.

You have mentioned the treatment equality. If so, we will need big resources to carry out pre-examination as the number of films posted on online platforms is huge. What should be done?

One platform may have different products, including films, entertainment, game shows and news. Therefore, it is necessary to classify the products for examination.

The examination of films needs to be implemented in accordance with the Law on Cinematography. The films related to Vietnam’s history, culture and politics need to be classified for editing, while other films with entertainment purposes could be assigned to businesses to edit based on Vietnam’s criteria. Meanwhile, journalistic news need to be edited in accordance with the Press Law.

Quynh An