Gifts: Do journalists accept or not?

On March 18, 2010, a seminar was held on interviewing children and how to behave with gifts and presents. This was the second seminar at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities within the framework of the project on Improving reporting capacity and knowledge of professional ethics for young journalists.

“Ignoring children's rights is a crime”

At 13:30, the discussion officially began with the appearance of journalist Nguyen Pham Thu Uyen. She opened her talk in a very open atmosphere through questions from the students participating in the discussion about interviewing children. A sad reality is that today, the voices of children appearing in the mass media are often not objective and are arranged by adults. Moreover, the voices of children have not appeared much in events and matters that directly affect their interests. For example, an example that has stirred up public opinion in recent days is the school violence cases, with few opinions from insiders. That is not reasonable because the thinking of adults is different and sometimes more imposing. Journalist Thu Uyen believes that the views of adults are often hasty and full of prejudice. The story published in Thanh Nien newspaper about a 13-year-old child cycling alone to the South to find his mother was used as an example by journalist Thu Uyen. The story has many advantages such as its humanitarian purpose and many vivid details. However, right after publication, the editorial board had to write a correction and apologize because the story had many inaccurate details. Commenting on this situation, the discussion group said that the main fault lies with the journalist. Because of not being careful when verifying information from the main character's story, the journalist put himself in a passive situation and had an occupational accident. Through the story, journalist Thu Uyen pointed out the difficulties in interviewing children, including psychological differences. Children have a very simple and realistic view of life as what they see before their eyes. And that is why children have unique, novel and very interesting feelings and thoughts. Journalist Thu Uyen offers some ways to overcome difficulties, approach and get children’s voices on issues that need to be raised because, according to her, “ignoring children’s voices is a sin”. Accordingly, it is necessary to understand and respect children’s way of thinking, avoid imposition, and not be biased.

Journalism is so exciting?!

After a 15-minute break, the discussion continued with the sharing of journalists Anh Thu and Vu Minh Thuy about the issue of journalists' behavior towards gifts and presents. The issue was raised by a rather interesting question for journalism students: What is attractive and makes you decide to choose journalism as a career? The students' answers were very lively, such as journalists have an objective and proactive view of life, journalists proactively give their opinions to the public, or journalists can explore more, learn more about new lands. The two journalists expressed satisfaction when the students had an objective view of journalism. They brought up the realities of the unsympathetic attitude of businesses and the public towards receiving gifts and envelopes at press conferences. Gifts for journalists can be in many forms such as tickets to cultural and sporting events, preferential shares, securities, promotions, meals, gifts, cosmetics, envelopes, etc. The two journalists used a Western saying to start their advice and sharing: "There is no such thing as a free lunch". We should only accept gifts, no matter how small, when we are sure that we can report the news objectively, providing information that the public needs to know, not PR information that businesses want to advertise to consumers. The speakers affirmed that accepting money and gifts is due to the awareness and courage of journalists. The most important thing is not to lose the honor and self-respect of a true journalist. The discussion ended later than expected because there were many questions from students revolving around the issues that the two journalists shared. Through this, each student gained useful experiences for the career they are pursuing.