From December 1, 2020, heavy penalties for violations of processes and procedures in publishing in Vietnam

From December 1, 2020, heavy penalties for violations of processes and procedures in publishing in Vietnam​ (Illustration photo)

Article 23 Decree 119/2020/ND-CP stipulates penalties for violations of procedural regulations in publishing activities in Vietnam as follows:

- Fines from VND 3,000,000 to VND 5,000,000 for any of the following acts:

• Not fully recording information in the publishing decision according to the prescribed form;
• Incomplete storage of editorial manuscript files and related documents of the publication;
• Using author or copyright owner consent documents without full information as per the prescribed form;
• Approving complete manuscripts for printing or electronic distribution incorrectly or incompletely according to regulations;
• Signing printing contracts between publishers, agencies, organizations licensed to publish non-commercial documents with printing facilities but not specifying the printed quantity or exceeding the printed quantity of publications compared to the publishing decision or non-commercial document publishing license.

- Fines from VND 5,000,000 to VND 10,000,000 for any of the following acts:

• Not issuing publishing decisions for each publication;
• Leaking or exposing the content of works or documents before publication, affecting the rights of authors or copyright owners for each publication;
• Incorrectly implementing the non-commercial document publishing license regarding document name, distribution scope, distribution form, or printing location for each publication;
• Publishing publications not in accordance with the registered publishing confirmation concerning the publication name, author name, translator name (if any), genre, publishing language, or affiliated partners for each publication.

- Fines from VND 10,000,000 to VND 15,000,000 for any of the following acts:

• Increasing the retail price printed on the publication without the approval of the publishing director for each publication;
• Not having an editorial practice certificate but standing as editor-in-chief or editor on the publication for each publication;
• Publishing publications that do not align with the summary content, topic, or subject in the registered publishing confirmation for each publication;
• Organizing or permitting the distribution of publications without issuing distribution decisions for each publication;
• Signing publishing decisions without proper authority or without legal authorization;
• Not signing printing contracts for publications with printing facilities for each publication;
• Signing printing contracts for publications with printing facilities without a publication printing business license.

- Fines from VND 15,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 for any of the following acts:

• Publishing publications without registered publishing confirmation or without non-commercial document publishing licenses for each publication;
• Publishing or reprinting publications without publishing or reprinting decisions for each publication;
• Not organizing manuscript editing, not approving manuscripts before printing or distributing on electronic means for each publication;
• Altering or falsifying the content of approved manuscripts or non-commercial document manuscripts with the seal of the licensing agency for each publication;
• Not storing editorial manuscript files and relevant documents of the publications for each publication;
• Not implementing corrections, suspension of distribution, recall, or destruction of publications upon written request from the competent authority for each publication;
• Not content reviewing works or documents as per regulations or by written request from the competent authority for each publication;
• Publishing works, documents, or reprinting publications without the written consent of the author or copyright owner as per legal requirements for each publication.

For details, refer to Decree 119/2020/ND-CP, effective from December 01, 2020.

Le Vy

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