Hanoi (VNA) - Experts from Vietnam and India shared experience and initiatives in journalismand communication products amid COVID-19 at a workshop held in Hanoi on October 22.

Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics (HCMA) Duong Trung Y said the event helped to create open andmultidimensional perspectives on issues relating to media between Vietnam andIndia and served as a venue to share experiences and initiatives whenparticipating in implementing communication products in the current period.

Heappreciated the role of the media in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Journalistspromptly reflect the developments of the pandemic, helping people to understandclearly about it and its tremendous devastation,” he told the workshop held bythe HCMA's Centre for Indian Studies.

TheVietnamese press has contributed to spreading the good values ofVietnamese traditions, which include the spirit of mutual love, solidarityand sharing, not with local people but also with international friendsthrough the treatment of foreign patients and shipments of medical equipmentsuch as masks, gloves and medical protective gear to other countries, he said.

Indian Ambassador to VietnamPranay Verma evaluated the seminar as an activity to help scholars,journalists and managers of the two countries share and exchange lessons andexperiences in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, thus promoting deepcooperation between the two countries.

Participantssaid the press of Vietnam and India have different characteristics but theyshare some similarities amid the COVID-19, such as ensuring provision ofinformation about the pandemic to help fight against it while at the same timesuffering negative impacts from the disease which has killed more than 1.1million people around the world.

Cuttingstaff and reductions in sales and revenue are challenges facing newsrooms andreporters in both Vietnam and India, not mention the boom of fake news viasocial media.

Times of India reporter Rudroneel Ghosh saidIndian media has never experienced a crisis like this and had to learn aboutthe disease day-by-day.  

Vietnamdid a good job of managing both COVID-19 and the economy while India has beensomewhat overwhelmed by COVID-19 numbers, he said, adding that Vietnam has usedan all-of-government approach but India was slow to muster requisite resources.

ProfessorTa Ngoc Tan, Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council,said in fact reporters are always “soldiers on the frontline” in the fightagainst COVID-19.

Hesuggested the media need to increase the coverage of positive information whileproactively criticising fake news to ensure accurate and transparent informationreaches people./.