As part of its restructuring, the Government of Vietnam is looking to reduce the number of news outlets in Vietnam by 19 magazines, 10 newspapers and five television stations. This is in order “to improve the quality and effectiveness of information and propaganda in the press, so that each press agency is stronger,” according to Lao Dong.
Firstly, the absence of local press analysis of this change, given that it seems likely at least some jobs will be lost with few alternative job options for journalists, speaks volumes to the challenges the industry faces in and of itself. Specifically, the heavy restrictions on what can and cannot be published diminish both the quality of news media and subsequently the reputation of the local press.
That said, there has been some analysis from Nguyen Khac Giang and Dien Nguyen An Luong published in Fulcrum in which they essentially argue that this will lead to less diversity of points of view in an environment in which diversity is already fairly restricted.