Resolution No. 16-NQ/TW, dated August 1, 2007, of the Party Central Committee on ideological, theoretical and press work in response to new requirements, emphasized: “The press is the voice of the Party, the State, socio-political organizations and a forum for the people, under the direct leadership of the Party, the management of the State and operating within the legal framework; must ensure the ideology, truthfulness, popular character, combativeness and diversity of press activities” (1). Indeed, over the years, as a sharp ideological weapon of the Party and the State, the Vietnamese revolutionary press has always been closely associated with and accompanied the cause of the Party and the nation; is a bridge between the Party, the State and the people, an important means of propagating socio-economic development, building and defending the Fatherland; is a forum for people to participate in Party building, social management and is a sharp and effective tool on the ideological front, especially in the fight against erroneous and hostile viewpoints. Practice has shown that any press agency with a truly clean and strong Party organization will operate in accordance with its principles and purposes, making positive contributions to socio-economic development, strengthening national defense and security, and building a strong Party, government, Fatherland Front and people's organizations. With such a position and role, strengthening the leadership and direction of Party organizations in press agencies is a very important task.

The Party Committee of the Central Agencies Bloc (hereinafter referred to as the Party Committee of the Bloc) was established on April 11, 2007, according to Decision No. 47-QD/TW of the Politburo on the basis of arranging and reorganizing 07 Party Committees of the Central Agencies Bloc on Economy, Ideology, Science and Education, Mass Mobilization, Internal Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Bloc I and the Party Executive Committee Abroad. The Party Committee of the Bloc is a Party Committee directly under the Party Central Committee, under the direct and regular leadership and direction of the Politburo and the Secretariat; performing functions and tasks according to Decision No. 98-QD/TW dated October 22, 2007 of the Politburo (now Decision No. 16-QD/TW dated June 18, 2021 of the Politburo); has the function of leading subordinate party organizations to ensure the completion of political tasks of the Central agencies, building clean and strong party organizations associated with building strong agencies and organizations in the Bloc. Currently, the Bloc Party Committee has 61 subordinate party committees, including 34 grassroots party committees, 27 grassroots party committees with 988 grassroots party organizations, 5,055 subordinate party cells with 78,432 party members working and operating at home and abroad. The subordinate party organizations are party committees in strategic advisory agencies of the Party, the State, the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations at the Central level. The Party Committee of the Central Agencies Bloc always clearly identifies the goal of regularly taking care of the work of building a strong Party; improving political and ideological education for party members and officials to grasp all viewpoints, guidelines and resolutions of the Party; policies and laws of the State; promote the leadership and direction of the Party organization in the Party Committee of the Central Agencies, contributing to building a clean and strong Party to excellently complete assigned tasks. The majority of Party members and civil servants have received basic training, have political theory and professional qualifications; have a firm ideology and stance; the ability to access information quickly and accurately; promptly and effectively, always promote a sense of responsibility, sense of organization and discipline, and have many innovations in performing the political tasks of the agency and unit. In particular, Party committees in press agencies always promote their leadership and direction roles, have successfully completed political tasks and demonstrated their true position and role as the political nucleus; In order to seriously implement the directives, resolutions, policies, guidelines of the Party and the policies and laws of the State, cadres, party members, and employees in agencies and units must uphold the spirit of responsibility, be exemplary, promote the spirit of initiative, creativity, research, consultation, and propose policies and solutions to excellently fulfill the political tasks of the agency or unit. Depending on the specific type of grassroots party organization, the party committees in the press agencies have implemented the regulations of the Secretariat on the functions and tasks of specific grassroots party committees and cells accordingly. The party committees here have well implemented the grassroots democracy regulations in each unit and agency, while taking care of the material and spiritual life of cadres, party members, civil servants, and employees in order to encourage and create all favorable conditions for cadres, party members, and employees to perform their responsibilities and tasks well, together with the agency or unit to excellently fulfill political tasks.

In order to properly implement the objectives and goals of the sector, Party committees and Party cells at all levels always pay attention to thoroughly grasping, comprehensively, synchronously and in-depthly implementing all aspects of Party building work; gradually building a streamlined, effective and efficient organization and apparatus, gradually bringing operations into order. The leadership method is increasingly innovated, focusing on issues closely related to the implementation of political tasks of agencies and units. The Party Committee regularly grasps and concretizes the resolutions of the Central Committee; programs and plans of the Party Committee of the Bloc, especially key and focal programs and plans; builds specialized resolutions on key issues, suitable to the characteristics of the Party Committee of the Bloc; on that basis, focuses on leading and directing the organization to effectively implement professional tasks.

Political and ideological education work has been strengthened, promptly grasping the ideological situation and basically resolving arising ideological issues; preventing and combating degradation in political ideology, ethics, lifestyle, deviation, and group interests among party members and officials. Inspection and supervision work has been promoted, gradually becoming routine, quality and efficiency have been improved; the work of managing, developing party members and protecting internal politics has been effectively implemented, contributing to building a clean and strong Party Committee of the Bloc; well meeting the requirements and tasks in the new period, the new era - the era of the Vietnamese nation's rise.

The Party Committee has seriously implemented the Resolution of the 4th Central Committee (term XI, XII) and Conclusion 21-KL/TW on some urgent issues on Party building and Directive No. 05-CT/TW of the Politburo on continuing to "Promote studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and lifestyle". Regularly educating Party members and officials to clearly identify signs of degradation in political ideology, morality, lifestyle, "self-evolution", "self-transformation" within the Party. Through annual inspection and supervision work, in general, Party members have well implemented the principle of democratic centralism; 100% of subordinate Party cells have successfully completed their tasks; 100% of Party members have successfully completed their tasks; there are no Party members who have failed to complete their tasks; Cadres and Party members have strived to compete to successfully complete the tasks set out by the Congress term.

However, in addition to the achieved results, the promotion of the leadership and direction of Party organizations in press agencies still has limitations, weaknesses and shortcomings such as lack of democracy, lax leadership and direction; inspection and supervision work is not regular; political and ideological education for cadres, party members, reporters and editors has not been focused on, lacks depth, and has not met the requirements and demands of practice. Due to many reasons, however, the majority is due to the leadership capacity and fighting strength of a few party cells, along with a few party members, which are still limited; the effectiveness of work implementation is not really profound; lack of initiative in innovation; some places have not actively proposed solutions to improve the quality of Party building work with the political tasks of the unit. Along with that, the coordination, orientation and provision of information by press agencies is sometimes not tight, from which, information verification also faces many difficulties.

Faced with that reality, more than ever, strengthening the leadership and direction role of Party organizations in press agencies needs to be focused on, focusing on the following contents:

Firstly, strengthen solidarity and unanimity to promote the leadership and direction role of the Party organization; promote the responsibility of the Executive Committee, directly the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the Bloc, closely follow reality, actively innovate leadership methods, improve the leadership capacity and fighting strength of the Party organization; maintain the principle of democratic centralism, the role of the Party organization is consistent with the political tasks of the agency and unit.

Second, it is necessary to regularly attach importance to doing well the political and ideological work, preventing and combating the degradation of political ideology, morality and lifestyle; selecting key and key issues, issuing specialized resolutions to focus on directing and resolving them in accordance with reality; enhancing the pioneering and exemplary role of Party members and officials, especially the heads of Party committees, agencies and units; focusing on improving the quality of Party cell and branch activities and the effectiveness of personnel work.

Third, closely follow the resolutions, programs, and conclusions of the Central Committee, the Party Committee of the Bloc, and the orientations of the Central Propaganda Department to closely match the actual situation of the agency and unit; promptly detect and replicate positive factors, advanced models, good people, good deeds; "correctly" and "accurately" reflect pressing issues in Party cells and Party committees, and propose solutions to ensure that they are reasonable and meet the aspirations of Party members.

Fourth, constantly improve qualifications and cognitive capacity, build a team of reporters and editors specializing in writing about Party building work with strong political will; practice cultivating moral qualities; have the ability to analyze and draw accurate conclusions; have rich life experiences, extensive knowledge in many aspects, and scientific and effective methods of journalism. In particular, correctly understand the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's policies; bravely fight against corruption, negativity, and evil for the benefit of the Party and the people. The team of reporters and editors must be well-trained, have a comprehensive vision in the process of analyzing and assessing the situation in the face of conflicting information on social networking sites; have good information receiving and transmitting skills and techniques to have a process of filtering information for journalists in particular and the press in general in the current context.

Fifth, focus on training in the field of Party building, such as: organization, propaganda, mass mobilization, inspection; relationships between Party committees and Party organizations at all levels to learn about the experience in Party building work of Party committees and Party organizations in order to have good, correct, accurate articles that are close to the current situation. In order to continue to promote the role of Party organizations in leading, directing, and managing the activities of press agencies; constantly innovate, improve the quality of content, form and ability to control information, especially information on Party building work, contributing to the good performance of assigned tasks.

Sixth, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of inspection and supervision work of Party committees and organizations at all levels in press agencies; promptly and strictly handle Party organizations and Party members who violate. Inspection and supervision work plays an important role in the entire leadership activities of the Party, is one of the Party's leadership methods and is a direct and regular task of the entire Party, first of all of Party committees and Party organizations.

Towards the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam (February 3, 1930 - February 3, 2025), from the practical work of leadership and direction of the press in Vietnam, in the face of the current major changes and challenges for the press, promoting the leadership and direction role of Party organizations in press agencies is an urgent requirement, an important task that needs to be seriously and effectively implemented by agencies and units, contributing to the successful implementation of the political tasks of each press agency in the new situation.

References

2. Documents of the 5th Conference of the 10th Central Executive Committee, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2007, pp. 42 - 43.

2. Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2021, vol. I, p. 183.

Dr. Pham Thi Vui

Member of the Party Committee of the Bloc,

Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department,

Party Committee of Central Agencies