The Press and Public Opinion Build People's Trust in the Fight against Corruption and Negativity in Vietnam Today

1. Relationship between the press and public opinion in building people's trust in the fight against corruption and negativity

The press is among the popular forms of communication in society and its influence on society is extremely vast. According to the existing popular concept, the press is a means of mass communication, conveying current information and policies to the masses in society. The outstanding characteristics of the press are the openness, direction and the rapid and widespread spread of information. Accordingly, creating and orienting public opinion is a very important function of the press.

Public opinion is a collection of personal opinions on current issues, events, and phenomena. Each opinion stream is a collection of similar personal opinions, which can be broad (the vast majority, great number of opinions) or narrow (a few opinions). Public opinion can include many different, even opposing opinions. However, only information about current events, phenomena, and social issues that touch the current interests and concerns of many people can create public opinion. Therefore, it can be considered that all comments, assessments, demands, requests, wishes, aspirations, recommendations, proposals, etc., of people from all walks of life regarding events and phenomena, issues, guidelines and policies of the Party and State in the fields of economics, politics, culture, society, security, defense, foreign affairs, etc., can all be called public opinion.

The press and public opinion have a close, dialectical relationship. As a means of mass communication, the press has the function of providing information to form and orient public opinion. Therefore, the press becomes one of the official and reliable information channels to form and orient public opinion. Public opinion is the general judgment and assessment made by social groups regarding information provided by the press related to issues they care about. Public opinion is not only a result brought about by the press, but it also has an impact on the press, in the sense of setting requirements and suggestions for the press to be responsible for continuing to provide complete, comprehensive and more accurate information about events, phenomena, and issues taking place in social life. It is worth noting that public opinion can be more or less right. No matter how right it is, public opinion still has limitations. The cognitive ability of public opinion should not be considered absolute. On the other hand, no matter how wrong it is, there are reasonable elements in public opinion that cannot be overlooked. The truth of public opinion does not depend on its universality. The opinion of the majority is not always better than that of the minority. New things are often noticed by only a few people at first, so they are easily opposed by the majority.

People's trust refers to the trust from the vast majority of people in the community and society. From the point of view of psychologists, trust is a special state of human emotions and psychology. Therefore, trust is considered in the transformation of physiological and psychological laws, which is the process of personal self-awareness and experience leading to the formation of emotions, personality, ideals and lifestyle. From the point of view of sociologists, trust is not simply an individual's emotions or consciousness, but is associated with society and is social in nature. Therefore, trust is always associated with social relationships and community consciousness in certain historical, spatial and temporal circumstances.

Trust can only be formed on the basis of the subject receiving objective, true and scientific information in the process of perceiving things, phenomena, and social issues that have been and are taking place. For that reason, the press and public opinion play a very important role in forming people's trust. With its function, the press helps people receive complete information, understand the nature of events, phenomena, and issues that have been and are taking place truthfully and accurately, thereby expressing their attitudes and points of view. The supportive or opposing attitude of people and the community towards events, phenomena, and issues is public opinion. Depending on the rate of support or opposition to an event, phenomenon, or issue, it is possible to measure the level of people's trust formation brought about by the press. Apparently, it is necessary to reiterate that the opinion of the majority is not always better than the opinion of a few. The important issue of public opinion is that it is a product of the judgmental thinking of the individual who carries it, expressing the individual's views and attitudes towards phenomena, events, and issues that they care about. Therefore, public opinion may initially include many different streams of opinion, but as it spreads, it tends to unify the content of judgments, or accumulate into a few basic streams. This is completely opposite to the trend of rumors. And, thus, it can be affirmed that the press and public opinion play a key role in forming people's trust in each event, phenomenon, and issue taking place in social life.

The current situation of corruption and negativity in our country is a social problem that has a great impact on the people's trust in the Party's leadership, the State's management and the superiority of the regime. Therefore, the press's information and the reaction of public opinion on the progress and results of the fight against corruption  and negativity have the value of forming, consolidating and enhancing people's political trust in the Party, State and regime. The work of fighting against corruption and negativity was determined by our Party right from the 6^th National Party Congress in 1986: "fighting against corruption is an important component of the entire revolutionary struggle of our Party and people"⁽¹⁾ ; contributing to enhancing the Party's leadership role, enhancing the State's management efficiency, building the Party and perfecting a clean and strong state apparatus, exercising the people's right to mastery. By the 9^th Congress in 1996, after 20 years of implementation, our Party became more deeply aware that promoting the fight against corruption, bureaucracy, and cleaning up the Party membership was an important content of building and rectifying the Party, and that anti-corruption should be combined with anti-waste. After more than 35 years of innovation, the fight against corruption has been identified as "a particularly important task in the work of building and rectifying the Party, building and consolidating a clean and healthy political system, and consolidating the great unity of the entire nation"⁽²⁾. Therefore, during the Congress terms, the Party Central Committee, Politburo, and Secretariat all discussed and issued resolutions, directives, regulations... on anti-corruption. The fight against corruption and negativity is an arduous, difficult and long-term job, not just of one person, one agency or one industry, but of the entire Party and the entire people, requiring determination, perseverance and persistence, the involvement of the entire political system.

According to the 2003 United Nations Convention against Corruption: "Corruption is the abuse of state power for private gain". Vietnam's 2018 Anti-Corruption Law defines: "Corruption is the behavior of people with positions and powers who take advantage of those positions and powers for personal gain". Thus, in essence, to put it simply as President Ho Chi Minh taught, corruption is the act of "stealing public property for private use"^{( 3)}. Corruption often takes place internally, by people with positions and power. Preventing and combating corruption is a struggle within each person, each agency, organization, unit, and locality. It is related to the interests, positions, fame and reputation of organizations and individuals. Negativity is the environment that gives rise to corruption; Corruption backfires and worsens the negative situation. In the book "Resolutely and persistently fighting corruption and negativity, contributing to building our Party increasingly clean and strong" by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, he explained that "negativity" has a broader meaning than "corruption". Corruption is a type of negative behavior performed by people with positions and powers, and is a specific manifestation of deterioration in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle. Corruption and negativity, especially the deterioration of political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, are closely related to each other. The basic and direct cause of corruption is the deterioration of political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle. Preventing and combating corruption in terms of money and property is not enough. The deterioration of political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle of officials and party members is more dangerous as it is identified as the root cause of corruption. The General Secretary concluded: "Preventing and combating negativity, with the focus on preventing and combating the deterioration of political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle among cadres, Party members, civil servants, and public employees is treating the root of corruption”⁽⁴⁾. Preventing and combating corruption and waste is associated with preventing and combating negativity, with the focus on preventing and combating the deterioration of political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle of officials and Party members. Therefore, it is necessary to correct the thinking and awareness to be able to prevent and fight corruption from early and afar, both at the top and at the root. Hence, the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption added additional functions, tasks, and powers to direct both anti-corruption and anti-negativity work in September 2021.

In the current fight against corruption and negativity, the press and public opinion play an extremely important role, because they directly provide official information, reflect the people's attitudes, opinions, and suggestions, contributing to improving effectiveness of this arduous and sensitive struggle. The press contributes to understanding and detecting corruption and negativity cases to support agencies responsible for fighting corruption and negativity in doing their work. It also closely follows the incidents and results of anti-corruption to promptly inform and create proper social education, thereby forming and strengthening the trust of officials, party members and the masses in the leadership of the Party, and the superiority of the socialist regime. The judgment of public opinion on what is right or wrong, what is good and what is not in the fight against corruption and negativity is fed back through the press to the Party, State, and anti-corruption agencies to make appropriate adjustments in policies, ways and measures of fighting to ensure fairness, objectivity, accuracy and effectiveness.

2. Press and public opinion in building people's trust in the fight against corruption and negativity in our country recently

In recent years, especially since the start of the 12^th Party Congress, the work of fighting against corruption and negativity has been implemented fiercely and methodically and has brought tangible results, gaining support from the public and acknowledgement from the people.  Many corruption cases seemed to be forgotten, but were brought to light and handled properly. One of the fundamental reasons leading to the initial success in this struggle is that our Party and State have inspired and promoted the combined strength of our forces, including the significant contribution of journalists and press agencies, and the participation of public opinion. According to data from the Central Committee of Internal Affairs, during 10 years of implementing the Conclusion of the 5^th Plenum of the 11^th Party Central Committee (May 2012), the work of fighting against corruption and negativity has been led, directed and implemented by our Party in a drastic, synchronous, comprehensive and practical manner producing strategic breakthroughs with very high political determination, achieving many positive and outstanding results. (i) Regarding detection and handling: 2,740 party organizations, more than 167,700 Party members, including more than 190 centrally managed officials (04 members, former members of the Politburo, 36 members, former members of the Party Central Committee) have been disciplined; 19,546 cases/33,868 defendants; 16,699 cases/33,037 defendants have been prosecuted; 15,857 cases/30,355 defendants have been put on first instance trial; 37 centrally managed officials have been criminally handled. (ii) In terms of building and perfecting institutions: The Party has issued 250 documents; The National Assembly has promulgated more than 300 laws and ordinances; The Government and Prime Minister  has issued more than 2,000 decrees and instructions. (iii) the openness, transparency, control of power, building a culture of integrity have been seen; (iv) Anti-corruption has been expanded to the non-State sector; international cooperation in anti-corruption has been strengthened. It can be affirmed that the above results have a significant contribution from the press and public opinion.

First, the press has contributed to propagandizing and disseminating the Party's and State's guidelines, opinions, policies and laws on the fight against corruption and negativity. Reality has proven that the Party's resolutions, directives and regulations; laws and ordinances of the National Assembly, decrees and instructions of the Government and the Prime Minister; Leadership and direction documents of Party committees and authorities of sectors and localities, etc., related to the work of preventing and controlling corruption are promptly disseminated by central and local press agencies to cadres, public officials, Party members and people. This helps raise the awareness, form trust, unify thought and action within the Party and the entire society; It also helps orient public opinion to agree, support, and participate in the Party and State's fight against corruption and negativity. In other words, the press helps people clearly understand the Party and State's views, policies, and determination to combat corruption and negativity; measures to fight corruption and negativity; responsibilities, obligations and rights of the entire political system in general and of each citizen in the fight against corruption and negativity. Accordingly, it has made an important contribution to "...making the masses despise corruption, waste, and bureaucracy; turning tens of thousands, millions of vigilant eyes and ears of the masses into searchlights illuminating everywhere, leaving no place for corruption, waste, and bureaucracy to hide..."⁽⁵⁾ as desired by President Ho Chi Minh. On that basis, it creates the combined strength of the political system and the entire society to promptly prevent, and completely eradicate the "national disaster" of corruption and negativity. However, beyond one-sided propaganda, the press has used public opinion to capture the thoughts, aspirations, and feedbacks of the masses, thereby actively participating in criticism and contributing opinions to guidelines, policies, and solutions of the Party and State on combating corruption and negativity, as well as advising and proposing effective anti-corruption initiatives.

Second, the press participates in detecting corruption and negativity cases to provide information for the authorities to investigate and review. Article 4 of the 2016 Press Law clearly states the functions, tasks, and powers of the press, including the task of "Discovering and setting examples of good people, good deeds, new factors, and advanced examples; preventing and combating violations of the laws and negative phenomena in society”. Thus, the press's task of preventing corruption has been legalized. However, according to current laws, the press does not have the authority to investigate or inspect like law enforcement agencies. The press has many forms to detect corruption and negativity cases to bring them to public opinion, providing useful information for agencies with investigative functions to consider corruption and negativity cases. For example: through letters from readers; through people's reflections and denunciations, the press then verifies and finds authentic documents and evidence to forward to public opinion and the authorities; or the press detects negative manifestations and corruption and conducts an investigation using profession-specific measures, etc. Typically, the Trinh Xuan Thanh case started because the press discovered a person driving a personal car with green license plate attached against regulations. The press also has the merit of discovering, investigating, and exposing many investment projects worth trillions of VND that have not yet been put into operation and have been at a loss, causing a huge waste of public assets as we know. The press is also at the forefront of reflecting public opinion in many cases of "speedy appointment" of descendants of those in power to high-level leadership positions, causing public outrage in some sectors and localities..., thereby helping the authorities handle the matter promptly and effectively, contributing to bringing positive results to the fight against corruption and negativity in our country recently.

Third, the press promptly reports the situation and results of the fight against corruption and negativity, so people can monitor, evaluate and engage. The press not only has the role of preventing corruption and negativity but also has the role of propagandizing, cheering and encouraging to form and develop awareness of preventing corruption and negativity among the people. Therefore, the press must convey timely and objective information about the situation and results of investigations and reviews of the authorities in the fight against corruption and negativity. The press can create forums for people to exercise their right to freedom of speech, reflect recommendations on objectivity, fairness, and accuracy in the investigation and adjudication of the authorities in corruption and negativity cases; or propose solutions to the policies or legal regulations that are not truly practical for the Party and State to make further consideration, adjustment and amendment.

In the fight against corruption and negativity, our Party and State always pay special attention and attach particular importance to the role of the people. President Ho Chi Minh said that the eyes and ears of the masses are "headlights" that can illuminate everywhere, leaving no place for corruption, waste, and bureaucracy to hide. The relationship between the press and the people is a two-way, one-way relationship. Through the diverse information content conveyed, the press meets the people's information needs. On the contrary, the people are the "eyes and ears" and the source of extremely valuable information for the press. People can reflect on the issues they care about, especially pressing social issues that occur, including corruption and negativity issues through journalists and press agencies. Effectively implementing that relationship, the press truly becomes the voice of the people, stands on the people's side, protects the people's rights and builds trust with the people. In the context of globalization and strong international integration and the 4.0 Industrial Revolution, based on the development of science and technology and the diverse development trends of journalism and social networks on the Internet platform nowadays, people have many ways to connect with journalists and press agencies, such as via hotline numbers, via email or other online communication methods. People can quickly provide the press with information related to the manifestations and acts of corruption and negativity behavior of individuals and organizations that take advantage of their positions and powers to violate the laws. Reality shows that many corruption and negativity cases that the press has brought to public attention in recent years originated from the people's discoveries and reports. Through such information, the authorities have intervened and many cases have been clarified, and violators have been handled at different levels. The press has clearly demonstrated its pioneering role in the fight against corruption and negativity, protecting the people's rights, worthy of being the Party's eyes and ears, a bridge between the Party and the people in the fight against corruption and negativity in our country today.

Fourth, public opinion contributes to improving the effectiveness of the fight against corruption and negativity. Public opinion has the following functions: evaluating and monitoring; consulting and criticizing; educating; regulating social relationships; relieving social psychology. In the fight against corruption and negativity, public opinion can promote these functions to contribute to improving the effectiveness of the fight. The evaluating and monitoring function of public opinion helps anti-corruption agencies to capture people's judgment, evaluation, and feedback on the process and results of each case, thereby promptly detecting limitations, shortcomings, and faults to consider adjusting, repairing, and correcting. A typical example is the case of teacher Le Thi Dung, former Director of the Continuing Education Center of Hung Nguyen district, Nghe An province. As we all know, on April 24, 2023, the People's Court of Hung Nguyen district, Nghe An province sentenced defendant Le Thi Dung to 5 years in prison for the crime of "Abusing position and power while executing public service", accused of appropriating nearly 45 million VND from the State budget. However, the Appellate Trial Council of Nghe An Provincial People's Court lowered the sentence to only 15 months in prison on June 13, 2023. It can be seen that after the Hung Nguyen District Court announced the sentence, the public had many different reactions, but the most prominent and overwhelming was the dissatisfaction and disagreement with the sentence. It was believed that, although defendant Dung was indeed guilty, with the amount of VND 45 million, the sentence of 5 years in prison was too harsh, if compared to corruption cases of billions of dollars that had occurred. Here, we do not judge the right or wrong of the laws or social justice in this case, but the fact that the Appeal Court reduced the defendant's sentence from 5 years to 15 months in prison is because of the impact from public opinion - results of people's evaluating and monitoring. The consulting and criticizing function of public opinion helps the Party, State, and anti-corruption agencies absorb the people's initiatives. Because, as President Ho Chi Minh said: “Everything must involve the masses. Without the masses, nothing can be accomplished... Therefore, any task involving the participation of the masses in discussion, no matter how difficult, becomes easy and can be done well"⁽⁶⁾. The educating function of public opinion has the effect of condemning and criticizing the manifestations and acts of corruption and negativity, thereby deterring and warning those with positions and powers to know how to train and cultivate themselves to remain integral, righteous, public-minded and impartial. At the same time, we honor and spread the exemplary, pure, and incorruptible examples of individuals and organizations that do not commit corruption and negativity in the process of performing public duties, thereby popularizing and replicating them in the society. The function of public opinion to regulate social relationships is to use public opinion to condemn and put pressure on extremist and protesting groups that protect and cover individuals and organizations that commit bad acts of corruption and negativity, making them "falter". Also, it shows support and encourages viewpoints and actions to drastically fight, prevent and repel the epidemic of corruption and negativity for the benefit of the Party and the country. Thanks to such timely intervention, public opinion has contributed to making the good overwhelm the bad; The positive and progressive push back the negative and backward, thereby maintaining social order and harmoniously resolving the relationship between individuals and society as well as between social groups in the fight against corruption and negativity. The social psychological relief function of public opinion helps people in general, social groups in particular, or individual officials, Party members, civil servants, and public employees express their feelings and share their frustrations, including the injustice related to corruption and negativity, thereby relieving psychology, creating balance and harmony in social relationships, keeping society in a stable state.

Fifth, public opinion is a reflection of the people's attitudes and trust towards the fight against corruption and negativity under the Party's leadership. Public opinion always reflects different levels of people's attitudes and trust in the fight against corruption and negativity initiated and led by our Party. There is a view that trust also has positive and negative beliefs. Positive beliefs - the type of trust that give people a special feeling- have the effect of guiding and making the right decisions and actions, and become the driving force that motivates people to fulfill their desires and intentions to achieve their goals. Negative beliefs appear when people believe that what they think, observe, and feel is negative. This type of trust will always make people feel anxious, insecure, and lacking positive energy, leading to the thought of giving up without making any effort in action, or if there is action, it will be a negative one.

With the results achieved in the fight against corruption and negativity over the past ten years, it is undeniable that we have not only contributed to preventing and repelling the epidemic of corruption and negativity in public administration and businesses but also contributed significantly to the formation and consolidation of the people's positive beliefs in the Party and its leadership, in the political determination of the entire Party and the political system in the fight against corruption and negativity. However, as a result, many party organizations, governments at all levels, and many individuals with positions and powers have been disciplined and even prosecuted. When information about disciplinary cases and corruption cases was published in the press with a large amount of money and State assets being misappropriated and lost, public opinion showed that alongside the enthusiastic and joyful attitude of the majority of the people, there also arises a feeling of confusion, worry, insecurity, and even pessimism and depression among many individuals. Because they felt that seemingly in any field, anyone with a position or power might become a subject of corruption and negativity. It is clear that public opinion has reflected the people's attitudes and trust in the fight against corruption and negativity in both positive and negative directions. Although the trend of public opinion shows that the majority of people have positive beliefs, expressed in attitudes of sympathy, support, and strong encouragement for the Party's fight against corruption and negativity, though a smaller number, it also shows that negative beliefs exist among a part of the people. This is a very worrying thing, especially when hostile and reactionary forces always seek to exploit the results of the anti-corruption and anti-negativity fight to distort and defame the Party, State and socialist regime in our country. Because those who are in the above negative mood are easily deceived, seduced, and provoked, leading to dissatisfied and uncontrolled attitudes and behaviors.

3. Promoting the role of the press and public opinion to form positive public trust in the fight against corruption and negativity in our country in the coming time

First, strengthening the Party's leadership, the State's management, and the consultancy and direction of the authorities on press work and public opinion research. Resolutely and persistently fighting corruption and negativity is the political determination of our Party and State, in which the press and public opinion play an extremely important role. We all know that the official press is the mouthpiece of the Party, State and socio-political organizations led by the Party and managed by the State. The fight against corruption and negativity is a difficult, sensitive and complicated one, because its subjects are individuals and organizations with positions and powers. Therefore, when participating in this struggle, journalists and press agencies need close leadership from party committees at all levels; strict management by government committees at all levels; advice and direction from authorities, especially propaganda departments at all levels, to ensure unity and promote synergy. Besides, in order to promote the role of the press in effectively fighting corruption and negativity, it requires research to capture the different opinions of the people through public opinion research, so that the press has the information basis to timely report to the Party, State and anti-corruption and anti-negativity agencies. Therefore, without the Party's drastic leadership, the State's strict management, and the effective advice of the authorities on the press and public opinion research, it will be difficult to promote the role of the press and public opinion in forming people's trust in the fight against corruption and negativity.

Second, promoting the advantage of the press in the fight against corruption and negativity, and perfecting institutions so that the press proactively participates in the fight effectively. Over the past time, the press has clearly shown the advantage of mass media in the fight against corruption and negativity, protecting the interests of the Party, the country and the people; being the Party's eyes and ears, a bridge between the Party and the people. However, in the process of implementing the anti-corruption and anti-negativity task, limitations and obstacles have also been revealed, and the advantages and capabilities of press agencies and journalists have not been fully exploited. Reality shows that in the fight, the press has often lacked accuracy and objectivity, causing difficulties for law enforcement agencies, and sometimes even harming the rights and interests of individuals, agencies, organizations, and businesses. Moreover, a number of press agencies have not been able to fully and promptly reflect the phenomena and cases showing signs of corruption and negativity that people have discovered and provided information, reducing the trust of whistleblowers and those providing information to the press. Reality also shows that press agencies and journalists have encountered many difficulties due to lack of information, protection mechanisms, and coordination mechanisms in the fight against corruption and negativity. The press participating in propaganda to combat corruption and negativity means accepting great dangers and risks, but the mechanism to protect press agencies and journalists is not strict and synchronous. Therefore, it is very necessary to improve institutions for journalistic activities in the fight against corruption and negativity. Firstly, there needs to be a mechanism for the press to promptly grasp information about the handling of corruption and negativity cases to promptly inform the people. Secondly, there should be a coordination mechanism between press agencies and functional agencies on anti-corruption to update information and provide objective and truthful information. Anti-corruption agencies need to strengthen coordination with the press to provide and exchange information about fields, areas, organizations and individuals showing signs of corruption and negativity, through which the press participates in reflecting, advising, proposing and recommending solutions to the authorities. Thirdly, there needs to be a coordination mechanism between anti-corruption agencies and press agencies to develop in-depth topics and reports on corruption and negativity cases and crimes both to handle them strictly and to learn from experience to overcome loopholes and inadequacies in institutions and laws. Fourthly, there should be focus on training and fostering press reporters to specialize in the field of anti-corruption, attention should be paid to educating professional ethics for journalists with the spirit of working for the benefit of the Party, the country and the people.

Third, the press provides timely and accurate information on the phenomena and cases of corruption and negativity that are being investigated and handled to create and orient public opinion, contributing to raising people's awareness and responsibility in the fight against corruption and negativity. In recent years, cases related to corruption and negativity have always been closely followed by the press which updates information daily, even hourly with reports and news, thereby promptly orienting public opinion and attracting attention of the people, encouraging the people to participate in the fight against corruption and negativity. Thus, the press not only meets the information needs of the people but also contributes to "activating" the spirit of anti-corruption among the people. However, in the rush to deliver information promptly, especially in a time of extremely fierce information competition among press agencies to attract readers, there have been misconducts leading to significant consequences. This has entangled journalists in legal trouble, implicated press agencies, and affected their reputation and brand. To address this phenomenon, there are still many issues that need to be resolved such as journalists not having full, legitimate access to reliable sources of information; or their sources have not been seriously protected. If these issues are adequately addressed, the role of the press in the fight against corruption will certainly be further enhanced.

Fourth, actively using the press and public opinion to gather intelligence and promote people's ideas in the fight against corruption and negativity. Faced with the problem of corruption and negativity occurring in many Party organizations, political systems and businesses in our country today, more than ever it is necessary to actively use the press and public opinion to gather and promote the people's intelligence in the fight against corruption and negativity. This is possible because public opinion not only reflects the thoughts and aspirations but also reflects the collective initiatives and intelligence of the masses around the fight against corruption and negativity. The press is both a means of providing information to create and orient public opinion, and a channel that reflects the flow of opinions, recommendations, and suggestions of public opinion to anti-corruption subjects. If the press and public opinion are used actively and effectively, the Party, State, and functional agencies will certainly exploit the intelligence and initiatives of the masses in the fight against corruption to bring more success.

Fifth, focusing on promoting the educational function of the press and public opinion to disseminate and replicate typical and pure examples of ethics and lifestyle in performing public duties, contributing to preventing the risks of corruption and negativity. The common point of the press and public opinion is the educational function. Thanks to this function, the press and public opinion can propagate and disseminate advanced examples in society. In the recent struggle to combat corruption and negativity under the Party's leadership, it has been shown that not all those with positions and power were corrupted, and many of them still maintained a strong political will, pure moral qualities, capable of being "immune" to corruption and negativity. Therefore, it is necessary to promote the educational function of the press and public opinion to praise, spread and replicate typical examples of political qualities, ethics, and lifestyle in the performance of public duties. It contributes to preventing the risks of corruption and negativity in the Party system, government, unions and businesses.

Sixth, proactively fighting wrong and hostile views towards the fight against corruption and negativity through the role of the press and public opinion. The causes of negative reactions, frustration, and loss of trust among a part of the people before the manifestations of corruption and negativity of individuals and organizations when exposed and handled can be many. However, the most important and main cause is still the impact of false, distorted, and inciting information from hostile and reactionary forces about the handling of corruption and negativity cases. Reactionary and hostile forces are ready to use all tricks and means, especially social networks, to spread false propaganda and distort the causes and results of incidents related to corruption and negativity in order to shake the trust of the people in the Party, State and regime; causing social instability and dividing the great national unity bloc, breaking the close connection between the Party and the people. Therefore, the press and public opinion need to proactively and actively participate in the fight against wrong and hostile views that take advantage of the fight against corruption and negativity to destroy people's trust in the Party and its leadership./.

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(2) Communist Party of Vietnam (2021): Documents of the 13^th National Party Congress, Truth National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, Vol.7, p.193.

(3) Ho Chi Minh (2011), Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, H., Vol. 7, p.355.

(4) http://dukcqtw.dcs.vn/cam-nang-phong-chong-tham-nhung-tieu-cuc.

(5) Ho Chi Minh (2011), Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, H., Vol.13, p.149.

(6) Ho Chi Minh (2011), Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, H., Vol.15, p. 278 -2