Leaders of the VNA and Bac Giang city unveil the name plate of Tran Kim Xuyen street on September 8. (Photo: VNA) VNA and provincial People's Committee leaders attended the name plate attaching ceremony of Tran Kim Xuyen and Dao Tung streets, made in recognition of their substantial contributions to the country’s revolutionary press.
Tran Kim Xuyen street, located in Tan Tien commune, is 0.56km long and 7.5m wide and has two 4.5m-wide pavements. Meanwhile, Dao Tung street in Tan My commune is 1.18km long and 12m wide and has two 6m-wide pavements.
Xuyen (1921 - 1947) was born in Son My commune of Huong Son district, the central province of Ha Tinh. In August 1945, he was appointed head of the Office of the then Ministry of Communications and Deputy Director of the then Vietnam Information Department in charge of the VNA. On January 6, 1946, he was elected a deputy of the first-tenure National Assembly for the area of Bac Giang. He laid down his life in Ngoc Son commune of Chuong My district, Ha Tay province (now Hanoi), on March 3, 1947, while evacuating documents. Xuyen was the first Vietnamese journalist and also the first VNA member to fall down during the resistance war against the French colonialists.
The hometown of Dao Tung (1925 - 1990), real name Do Trung Thanh, was the fomer Phu Lang Thuong (Lang Thuong district) of Bac Giang province. He served as Editor-in-chief of the VNA from May 1966, and then General Director and Editor-in-chief of the VNA from 1977 until his death. He also used to serve as Vice President of the International Organisation of Journalists, member of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for External Relations, and Vice Chairman of the Vietnam - Cambodia Friendship Association. He was granted the second-class Independence Order, the first-class Resistance War Order, and many other noble rewards by the Party and State in recognition of his dedications.
The ceremony attaching the name plate of Dao Tung street in Bac Giang city on September 8. (Photo: VNA) In her remarks, VNA General Director Vu Viet Trang said the ceremony demonstrated the gratitude from the Party, the State, the local admininistration and people, and the VNA to Tran Kim Xuyen and Dao Tung, who were typical examples of the journalists - soliders making enormous contributions to the fight for national liberation and Vietnam’s revolutionary press.
That the streets were named after them also showed the recognition of the VNA’s contributions, she said, noting that during resistance wars, its reporters and technicians were present across battlefields and surmount all hardships to fulfill their duties.
Nearly 260 reporters and technicians of the VNA laid down their lives for the Fatherland, the official went on.
With 2,100 staff members, including over 1,200 reporters and editors nationwide and around the world, the VNA is upholding its traditions, unceasingly making reforms and innovation, and applying modern technology to maintain its stature as the strategic and trustworthy information centre of the Party, State and people and move forwards on the path to become the key multimedia news agency of the country, according to the General Director.
So far, seven streets across Vietnam have been named after VNA journalists. They include three named after Tran Kim Xuyen – in Cau Giay district of Hanoi, Pho Chau township of Ha Tinh province, and Bac Giang city of Bac Giang province. The others are Bui Dinh Tuy in Ho Chi Minh City, Lam Hong Long in central Binh Thuan province, Tran Binh Khuol in southern Bac Lieu province, and Dao Tung in Bac Giang./.
