Government agencies have agreed that the Ministry of Information and Communications should have the sole authority to penalize journalists and newspapers.
Representatives from the Ministries of Justice and Information and Communications and other government agencies met last Thursday to review existing regulations on disciplining the media.
Last year the government had issued four decrees on press freedom which overlap in many places and confer the right to penalize the media on a number of different agencies, including commune-level authorities.
Analysts said this lent to easy abuse since journalists can thus be punished more than once for a violation.
At the meeting, the attendees concurred that the Ministry of Justice should call on Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to rescind the overlapping regulations.
It would also ask the PM to issue new regulations giving the Ministry of Information and Communications the authority to fine journalists and newspapers.
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