April 18, 2005

30 Years After the Fall of Saigon-Vietnam's Next Generation Logs On to Digital Media

by George Esper and James Borton

South Vietnam, although backed by the power of the United States and a half million American troops, fell to the Communist-led North 30 years ago. The world watched on television that chaotic day, April 30, 1975, when the Saigon government surrendered.

Time has changed much about Vietnam. Early bitterness on both sides has given way to improved relations between Vietnam and the United States. Despite the legacy of war and political constraints, Vietnam's own media are slowly helping the nation face new  challenges toward becoming a global player and aspirant to World Trade Organization (WTO) membership.

During a rice shortage in the 1980s, many Vietnamese went hungry; some poor survived on livestock feed. Now, Vietnamese purchase the latest mobile phones and Honda motorbikes, and log onto the Internet for games and news.

Each visit by Americans reaffirms Vietnam's economic, educational and cultural ties to its former enemy. As the war memories faded, battlefields were turned into new housing, farmland and tourist attractions. For young people there are no memories. More than half of Vietnam's 84 million citizens are under 25. The first generation in nearly 50 years to come of age in peacetime has dreams for the future that don't conform to Communist Party slogans.

At a time when American public support and trust in the media is eroding, Vietnam's young Internet-savvy reporters and editors eagerly strive to improve professional skills, enhance integrity and use technology to integrate with the West and
globalization. Online reporting has been adopted by many of Vietnam's major media, and digital-era publishing has become widely popular.

At VietnamNet's modern headquarters in Hanoi, witness a new generation of Vietnamese in front of their Vaio computers, surfing English language online news websites. This state-controlled digital media company's charismatic publisher and
editor-in-chief, Nguyen Ahn Tuan, a 43 year-old Harvard Advanced Management Program graduate, represents the face of Vietnam's digital media revolution. 

Le Minh Quoc, chief online editor for Vietnam News Agency, has established a web log, www.vietnamjournalism.com to promote media standards, ethics and  management, and to establish a forum for journalists.

In a recent conversation at a bustling café in Hanoi's Old Quarter, with nearby Internet cafes jammed with young Vietnamese, Minh spoke quietly, in perfect English. "I set up this site to share all I know on journalism to my colleagues, especially young reporters and editors; we want to become better reporters on the dynamic changes taking place in our country since the war ended."

Progress in Vietnam is not easy to chart; often a step forward seems followed by a move back toward repressive Party control. But with more Vietnamese journalists expressing interest in serious news reporting _ shunning the Party line and doing away with such onerous habits as gratuities for journalistic "favors'' * there is reason for optimism.

This new generation hungers for education, including journalism, for information technology, and, most of all, for a chance to study in the United States, which they see as the place for learning what matters most.

Here are specific recommendations to help meet Vietnam's media needs, to prepare its journalists to deal with new digital technologies, and to encourage growth of a professional and independent press, essential for grass-roots democracy.

*    The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) fosters mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through international educational and training programs.

*    West Virginia University's Perley Issac Reed School of Journalism actively encourages support from State's Public Diplomacy department to support media training programs in partnership with Vietnam National University's Faculty of
Journalism and the Hanoi University of Foreign Studies.

*    The planned WVU Center for the Study of Emerging Media in Vietnam seeks financial support from USAID to facilitate the placement of media trainers and the academic exchanges.

Before the renovation or "doi moi," the media was regarded as merely a mouthpiece for the Party. With increased market reforms and globalization, Vietnam's media want to improve journalistic standards and focus on formerly proscribed topics.

Professional media training and programs developed by our Center will equip more Vietnamese journalists to report on official corruption, poverty, environmental issues, health care, integration into the world market, and safeguarding culture. In these ways, Vietnam's press can contribute to building a stronger civil society.

We are working with Maryanne Reed, dean of the School of Journalism, to establish a professional and academic exchange program with Vietnam, and a Center for the Study of Emerging Media in Vietnam. She has ably pursued these goals, which originated with Christine Martin, former dean of the School of Journalism and now vice president of institutional advancement.

The project is welcomed by Vietnam's own media gatekeepers.

"Information communication technologies are contributing to major shifts in our culture, society and media," says Nguyen Ahn Tuan, chief executive of the state-owned enterprise Value Added Software Company (VASC) and founder of the popular bilingual news website, VietnamNet which gets 5 million hits a day.

Controlling Vietnam's nearly 700 newspapers and 400 periodicals, the Communist Party has no room for private media. The press remains, for all purposes, a party outlet for educating and filtering information -- not for independent news reporting.

But there are clear signs of an emerging cadre of intrepid newspaper editors and professional journalists like our new media friends, Tuan and Minh, who welcome adoption of Western-style reporting standards and the promise of an independent press.

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George Esper covered the war in Vietnam for The Associated Press for 10 years. He retired in 2000 and  since then he has been teaching journalism at his alma mater, West Virginia University.

James Borton is an independent foreign correspondent and media advisor to West Virginia University's Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism's planned Center for the Study of Emerging Media in Vietnam. He is also at work on a book on Asia Digital Media.

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George Esper
Ogden Newspapers Visiting Professor
West Virginia University
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