State Agencies Spokesperson and Provision of Extraordinary Information to the Press

1. In the event of a significant national incident related to national defense, national security, public order, social safety, or public health, except in the case of declaring a state of emergency, the Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam or the spokesperson of the Government of Vietnam shall make statements and provide information to the press immediately after the incident occurs and regularly during the incident handling process.

2. For incidents involving multiple ministries and central authorities, multiple provinces and cities, ministries, ministry-equivalent agencies, or People's Committees of centrally governed provinces and cities, the Government of Vietnam assigned agency responsible for handling must make statements and provide information to the press regularly during the incident handling process.

3. The spokesperson or authorized spokesperson is responsible for making statements and providing information promptly and accurately to the press in the following unexpected, unusual cases:

- When significant events or issues with a major impact on society occur, or when public opinion is divided on an issue within the management scope of the state administrative agency, the spokesperson or authorized spokesperson must make statements and provide information to the press to promptly warn and guide public opinion.- In the event of an incident requiring immediate initial information from the state administrative agency, the spokesperson or authorized spokesperson is responsible for proactively making statements and providing information to the press within no later than 24 hours from the occurrence of the incident.- When the press agency or the state management and regulatory agency for the press requests statements or provision of information on events or issues of the agency, within the management scope of the agency that has been mentioned in the press, or on events or issues mentioned in point a clause 3 of this Article.- When it is believed that the press has published false information about the field or area managed by the agency, the spokesperson or authorized spokesperson must request the press agency to publish the corrective and responsive opinion as prescribed by law.

More details can be found in Decree 09/2017/ND-CP effective from March 30, 2017.

- Ngoc Duyen -

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