[Vnbiz] Vietnam's PM bans civil servants from talking to media

[Phan, Tai]

Wednesday June 6, 2007


Vietnam's PM bans civil servants from talking to media

HANOI, Vietnam (AP): Vietnam's prime minister has issued a decree further limiting the flow of information within the communist country, prompting concerns among journalists who already operated under tight restrictions. 

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung issued the decision May 28 banning everyone within government ministries from speaking to the media, except ministers, provincial governors or officially appointed spokespeople. 

Reporters working in the Vietnamese media, which is entirely state-controlled, said the new rules will make it more difficult to obtain information. They declined to give their names for fear they might be punished. 

"Many government officials will use the regulations as a tool to refuse to talk to the press,'' said one Ho Chi Minh City journalist. "This will make it harder for us to do our jobs.'' 

A Hanoi journalist said the decree seemed to conflict with the government's commitment to implementing administrative reforms and opening government procedures. 

"We will have to go through thick layers of bureaucracy before we can get someone from a government agency to talk to us,'' she said. 

The decree states that government spokespeople will have a monthly media briefing, and each ministry will hold a briefing at least once every six months. It also instructs the ministries to publish monthly or quarterly information for the media on their Web sites. 

Until now, Vietnamese journalists routinely sought information from mid- and lower-level government bureaucrats. The new decree does not specify what will happen to officials who provide information to reporters without permission. 

Vietnamese officials could not immediately be reached for comment about the new measure, which was decried by international media watchdogs. 

"I think it will affect Vietnam's credibility and transparency,'' said Vincent Brossel of Reporters Without Borders. "It's exactly what the Vietnamese government said it would not do.'' 

Swedish Ambassador Rolf Bergman said appointing official spokespeople is a positive development because it will give journalists a point of contact within each ministry. But he objected to restricting reporters from talking to other sources. 

"It will be equally important for reporters and journalists to be able to carry out investigative journalism and to analyze, scrutinize and report relevant and accurate information from other sources as well,'' he said in a written response. 

Bergman said the new regulations run counter to the work Sweden has promoted through training members of Vietnam's press over the past seven years.