UK's experience to help VN with defamation law

HA NOI—Viet Nam needs a clearer legal framework to regulate responsible journalism, and journalists need to be better, more professionally trained.

These insights came from a conference on Viet Nam-United Kingdom experiences on defamation laws held yesterday in Ha Noi, with support from the British Embassy in Ha Noi.

"We will show how the defamation law applied in the UK can both protect the reputation of individuals and organisations while enabling the media to report responsibly about matters of significance to the public, such as corruption and public wrongdoing," said Stephen Whittle, former BBC Controller of Editorial Policy and visiting fellow at Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at University of Oxford.

The conference focused on discussing defamation issues in Viet Nam, introducing British law concepts of privilege and on how defamation laws and regulations can support public interest and "responsible journalism".

Peter Connolly, British Charge D'Affaires, said, "The UK has a long tradition of free and open media. With freedom comes responsibility, and we are pleased to share UK experiences in responding to these challenges. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese media has developed rapidly along with economic prosperity. Several newspapers have multi-million dollar revenues and significant influences on readers' attitudes and Government policies and decisions. At the same time, an increasing number of libel cases are being taken to court. We hope to help Viet Nam develop and regulate a healthy, responsible press, while protecting individuals' and organisations' reputations."

The director of the Ministry of Culture and Information's Press Department, Hoang Huu Luong, said that in 2009 the department had received 293 complaints relating to 132 cases where wrong information was broadcast and publicised in newspapers.

Among those cases, many had occurred because reporters were not professionally trained and did not have a thorough understanding of journalism and the law, according to Luong.

There should also be more exchanges between the Vietnamese and foreign media on legal matters to improve professional standards, he said.

However, some domestic journalists at the conference criticised biased and distorted foreign media reports about Viet Nam. —VNS