Photo journalists and their works tend to be overlooked and underestimated in Vietnam, with most of the photos being used for illustration only, heard an Aug 2 meeting on improving the country’s photo journalism.

As press photos serving as independent works are really hard to come by, the role of photo journalism has been subordinate compared to other types of journalism, lamented the participants, who come from the Vietnam Journalist Association and major newspapers.

Ha Minh Hue, from the association, also pointed out that press photos remain packed with clichés in both content and expression.

“Our press photos are usually limited to those taken of beaming State leaders’ handshakes, soldiers holding guns to safeguard the country’s borders or farmers working on the paddies, to illustrate a piece of news or a story. We’re in bad need of photos capturing precious moments which suffice in meaning themselves and can replace words, while being inundated with showbiz shots,” Hue elaborated.

There were only 86 press photos competing at the 7th National Press Awards last year, which is the highest number over seven years, though journalists can now easily send in their works themselves without being introduced by local journalist associations. In addition, no photos have been eligible for the first prize. Ba Ria – Vung Tau province can’t even give away prizes to any press photos in the past ten years.

Meanwhile, Pham Tien Dung, from the Vietnam News Agency, put the situation down to inadequate attention given to the recruitment and training of photo journalists.

“Many photo reporters and even leaders of several news agencies remain weak in grasping the theory and practice of photo journalism, which prevents them from delving into difficult, socially influential topics,” he noted.

Seasoned photo journalist Luu Quang Pho from Thanh Nien shared that his colleagues usually lament that leaders of news agencies are usually under the perception that press photos are less important than text journalism and videos.

Meanwhile, representative of Tuoi Tre is hopeful regarding the recently released decree on managing the supply and use of the Internet and online information, which tightens control over the rampant copyright violations on press photos in Vietnam, including being posted on newswires and personal pages on social networks without authors’ consent or providing photo credits.

However, he pointed out that the decree failed to be distinct on copyright violations, as the copyright ownership of press photos, which are usually independent journalism works, must be respected separately instead of being included in a news item or story.

He thus urged that the Ministry of Information and Communication, which released the decree, pay due attention to the matter while compiling the guiding circular on the decree.