Asiavision Annual Awards are held annually to honor outstanding works and organizations in the field of television journalism. A few hours ago, the 2021 Asiavision Annual Awards were officially held and reported online on Asiavision's Facebook page.
This year, Vietnam Television (VTV) excellently took over nearly the 40 largest TV stations in the Asia-Pacific region, including famous names such as CCTV, NHK and KBS to receive the award in the category of Coverage of the Year.
Over the past year, Vietnam Television has made great and positive contributions to the ABU news system by providing news related to COVID-19. The Department of International Programs is the unit that selects, edits and compiles valuable news articles to promote Vietnam's fight against COVID-19.
VTV News had an interview with journalist Le Hoang Linh, deputy director of the English News, Department of International Program, who was assigned to act as a focal point for the news exchange with ABU, just after the award ceremony ended.
- The news exchange has made a great contribution for you to earn this award. When Asiavision's news-sharing system presented you the biggest award of the year, how did you and your colleagues feel?
- We are very excited and proud. This is the common success of the entire news block of the Vietnam Television Station, affirming the quality of a series of news articles on COVID-19 produced by the News Department, along with the contribution of the Center for the Development and Production of Digital Content, regional centers VTV8, VTV9 and the Department of International Programs VTV4.
The VTV4 team has made great efforts to edit and translate the most updated news across Vietnam Television's entire news system into English for sending to the Asiavision on a daily basis. Since then, stories about Vietnam's anti-epidemic efforts have been disseminated.
- On what criteria did Asiavision (ABU) rely on and evaluate to award this prize to VTV?
-Each year, the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) holds an awards ceremony to honor outstanding work and organizations in the field of television journalism the year before. This year, the Asiavision 2020-2021 awards winners were selected from 17,000 submissions.
There are seven categories for different works and the biggest prize is Coverage of the Year. Only one best member from all of Asiavision (including almost 40 largest TV stations from the Asia-Pacific region, including very famous stations like CCTV, NHK, KBS) was selected. And it's good that VTV won this very important award.
For this category, the jury assessed all the news sent by VTV about the COVID-19 pandemic and nominated VTV as a candidate for the first prize. The jury was extremely impressed with the quick daily updates, the impressive stories about economic recovery, especially the humane stories about how the pandemic has affected the community, and the various efforts of the Vietnamese people to overcome the pandemic.
The judges also commented, "VTV stands out for its excellent news delivery, storytelling and visual effects. It's a real strength and a skill for which VTV excels among Asiavision members."
- As for news related to COVID-19, can you tell us about the selection criteria and the number of articles submitted from VTV4 to the ABU system?
- In the daily news stream, we select news that international audiences are interested in the fight against Covid-19, such as government efforts, frontline forces, and people, anti-epidemic stories about flexible adaptation, good charity models of businesses, localities, organizations, humanitarian activities and people with great contributions.
News editing must be fast, correct and, at the same time, guarantee the standards of international news. We send more than a dozen news and reports like this every day and the coordinator of Asiavision is always satisfied with the quality of the news, especially for many months VTV has been awarded as the television station that sends the most news about COVID-19.
For example, since April 2021, when the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic flared up in Vietnam, friends from all over the world were interested in the developments of the epidemic. Therefore, for several months in a row, VTV always ranked first in the amount of Covid-19 news sent, surpassing many other major broadcasters such as China's CCTV, Japan's NHK, and India's DDI.
-In addition to the COVID-19 news, what are other areas of coverage Asiavision appreciates?
- Besides news articles on COVID-19, the Coordinating Board of Asiavision's news exchange system highly appreciates many articles on hot events of international interest about Vietnam's position in the region. For example, last October, VTV won the monthly award for updating the situation of storms, floods and landslides in the Central region. In November, VTV won the monthly award for up-to-date news on the 37th ASEAN Summit and the successful signing of the RCEP agreement.
-VTV for many years has won Asiavision (ABU) awards. What do you think this award means?
- This is not the first time that Asiavision has given an award to VTV. Before that, in 2020, VTV also won two awards which were Outstanding Reporting of a News Story, going to the Hero of the Night of Hanoi by the production team Pham Quoc Viet, and Outstanding Reporting on Climate Change and Adaptation won by the production team that includes reporters Hoang Hai Yen and Nguyen Tai Vu with the reports titled Green Recycled Bags, from the Center for Digital Content Development and Production (VTV Digital).
In 2019, Asiavision also awarded VTV the Best Breaking News prize for its coverage of the meeting between former US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi. According to Mr. Javad Mottaghi, Secretary General of ABU, Vietnam Television was chosen for its excellence in delivering information and images about the event that attracted the world's attention in the fastest way. Through ABU's Asiavision news-sharing system, VTV's coverage about the historic meeting between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea was delivered to ABU's 272 members in 76 countries.
In recent years, along with the country's strong development, Vietnam's prestige and position on the international stage has increased more and more. That is why, in important political-diplomatic events, the international media pay a lot of attention to Vietnam and the demand for news from Vietnam is very high. And major TV stations often look to VTV4, the focal point of Vietnam Television's news exchange. We consider this as an important task of ours to promote and bring the national image closer to the world audience.
-Thank you for your time.
