The dianging media climate alhnved for more frank criticism on a wider range of social and public issues.
negativism; especially in its mont ly special issue, Tuoi Tre Cuoi (Youth's Humor)2°

In May, not wishing to be left behind, Nhan Dan opened its columns to mass criticism of the system.21 The media climate was rapidly changing nationwide. Other important newspapers and magazines joined the fray: Lao Dong of the Labor Union,Dai Doan Ket of the Fatherland Front, Tuan Tin Tuc of the Vietnam News Agency, Hanoi Moi of the People's Committee in the capital, Van Nghe of the Writers' Association, and so forth. Last but not least, Tap chi Cong San, the Party theoretical review, started publishing fundamental articles on Party issues and regime difficul
ties 22

The breeze of openness has permitted the long suppressed truths to be voiced. Loosened controls and restrictions have provided the public with more accurate information and investigations on a wider variety of social issues; especially bringing the conditions of women, the peasants, and the younger generation to societys attention.23 Specific problems were aired concerning the decline of morale among the young people, such as the use of drugs, the high crime rate, the difficulty of getting a decent education or employment alter high school or college 24 However, the most fashionable topics were understandably corruption, embezzlement and the abuse of privileges among the officialdom.25 The revelation of such widespread negative behavior was aggravated by the issue of nu.merous reports and articles describing the impunity of members of the Nomenklatura protected by their Party or State apparatus 26 Ail in al], the picture revealed by the press was more than alarming, and bore witness to the downfall of a nation in every economic, cultural and socio-political sense.

Supported by Party leaders in Ho Chi Minh City, the press reform quickly gathered momentum and by the end of 1986 was accepted as a socio-political reality by the regime.

During the VCP's Sixth Congress, the role of media and the press was newly defined, with the top Party echelons having taken into account the ascending flow of democratization and the inescapable pressure of "facing the truth":

"The mass media must transmit the Party s Une and policy,provide in-depth analysis of news events ... The press is the Party's voice and at flic saine tune the re f lection o f the voice o f the masses. Today the rising overall level of knowledge of our people requires the press and other media to ensure truthfirlness, to enhance quality, to boost the mass standpoint, and to hei`', hten flic fighting spirit, checking flic simplistic, monotonous, hollow, cliche-ridden, and monopolizing attitudes (of flic mass media). "17

The Sixth Congress also stressed the need. to openly impart details of corruption within the ranks of the Party members and high officiais, through the press and the media 28 This was strongly enforced in June 1987 by a directive from the Party's Secretariat, prohibiting Party and State organizations to abuse or hinder the media's function to inform on behalf of Party and State secrecy.29

Another crucial media event in 1987 in Vietnam was the column "Things that must be done righ t away", which appeared on the front pages of Nlian Dan and other leading newspapers under the authorship of the new general secretary of the VCP. Impatient with bureaucratie inertia and corruption, and alarmed by the accelerated deterioration of living standards, Nguyen Van Linh serai-officially stepped onto the media scene with his newly ac quired au thority to declare war on graft and economic inefficiencies.3° This patronage bolstered not only the exposure, but also the prosecution of numerous corrupted officiais. Since the attack was launched from the highest ruling circle, we could assume that internat orders and monitoring on how to carry out the anti-corruption campaign were received by ail important in
Indochina Report 6	Oct-Dec 1990