Perhaps the greatest tragedy of journalism in Việt Nam is that many reporters clearly understand what their profession ought to be, yet they cannot actually practice it. They know that journalism is not merely about publishing official statements or repeating the words of those in power, but rather about standing on the side of truth and the public.

This limitation is not merely the impression of outside observers. A study on Vietnamese journalists, “The Gap Between What They Say and What They Do: Journalists’ Role Conception and Role Performance in Socialist-Communist Context,” published in 2023 in the journal Journalism Studies, reached a similar conclusion.