Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day, 21 June

The first newspaper printed in the Vietnamese Latin script was Gia Định báo, which published its first issue in Saigon on 15 April 1865. In the early twentieth century Vietnamese-language journalism flourished in Hanoi and Saigon with Đông Dương tạp chí, Nam Phong and many papers run by patriotic intellectuals. The press spread the national script, introduced new ideas and encouraged a spirit of learning.

Yet most papers of the time worked under strict colonial censorship. Articles calling for freedom and democracy were often cut, and many titles were shut down after only a few issues. Vietnamese patriots needed a paper of their own, written in their mother tongue and speaking plainly about the road to national liberation.

On 21 June 1925, in Guangzhou, China, Nguyễn Ái Quốc published the first issue of Thanh Niên, the paper of the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association. It was written and printed by hand in small runs, then smuggled back into the country by sea and overland to reach members of the association and other patriots.

Thanh Niên was short and easy to read, explaining why people had to unite, to learn and to struggle. Nguyễn Ái Quốc wrote many of the articles himself and taught the trainees of his political classes how to make a newspaper. From a small paper printed abroad, Vietnam's revolutionary press was born, and it has been tied to the fate of the nation for nearly a century since.

On 21 April 1950, in the Việt Bắc resistance base, the Association of Vietnamese Newspaper Writers was founded, forerunner of today's Vietnam Journalists' Association. During the wars, reporters worked on the battlefield, in trenches and along supply routes, and many lost their lives while on assignment. On 20 May 1957 the Law on the Press Regime was issued, the first press law of independent Vietnam.

On 5 February 1985 the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee issued Decision 52-QĐ/TW, naming 21 June each year Vietnam Press Day to mark the first issue of Thanh Niên. In 2000, at the 75th anniversary, the day was renamed Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day, the name it still carries.

Your pens are also sharp weapons in the cause of upholding what is right and driving out what is wrong.

President Hồ Chí Minh, Third Congress of the Vietnam Journalists' Association, 1962

Every 21 June the National Press Awards are presented to outstanding work in print, online, radio, television and photojournalism. They are the highest honour for journalists in the country, recognising painstaking investigative series, reports from disaster zones, borderlands and islands, and work that has helped change policy.

The Press Law No. 103/2016/QH13, in force since 1 January 2017, sets out the rights and duties of journalists, including the right to receive information and the duty to report truthfully. The profession's familiar motto, "clear eyes, a pure heart and a sharp pen", reminds journalists to see events clearly, keep their conscience clean and write with a sharpness that carries responsibility.

Today readers get their news on phones far more than on paper. Newsrooms produce video, podcasts, social media bulletins and layered interactive stories. Journalism has also widened into corporate communications, public relations and content creation, where many young journalism graduates choose to begin their careers.

On 21 June newsrooms meet their contributors, organisations and companies send greetings to the reporters who cover their field, and journalism schools hold career talks. For readers it is a moment to remember that every accurate morning bulletin is the result of many hours of verification, interviewing and editing.