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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
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href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/19/revolutionary-journalism/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/19/revolutionary-journalism/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Revolutionary Journalism</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/george-burchette/"
rel="nofollow">George Burchett</a> - April 19, 2019</span></div>
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<p class="wp-caption-text">Journalist Wilfred Burchett
at work at President Ho Chi Minh’s jungle headquarters
in Thai Nguyen, March 1954.</p>
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<p>On 4 April this year, I was invited to attend the
celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the
founding of the Huỳnh Thúc Kháng School of Writing and
Journalism. Set up on the instructions of President Ho
Chi Minh on 4 April 1949, the school was housed in a
simple bamboo hut on the shores of Núi Cốc Lake (Hồ Núi
Cốc) in Thai Nguen province, some 80 kilometres north of
Ha Noi.</p>
<p>In 1949, the Resistance against French colonialists,
backed by US Imperialists, was facing difficult times.
From 4 April to 6 July 1949, 42 young students were
trained by 29 lecturers, including General Vo Nguyen
Giap, in Revolutionary journalism, so they could put
their talents and newly acquired expertise at the
service of the Revolution and contribute to their
country’s struggle for Independence and Liberty. At the
end of the course, they produced the first edition of
their revolutionary newspaper, “Huỳnh Thúc Kháng”.</p>
<p>President Ho Chi Minh was not able to visit the school,
but, as a seasoned journalist, editor and publisher, he
sent letters in which he outlined his advice to
journalists.</p>
<p>As we live in the age of fake news, of which there have
been some glowing examples lately, I thought it would be
a good idea to revisit Uncle Ho’s principles of
revolutionary journalism. In a nutshell, they are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>1. Know why you write and who you write for.</p>
<p>2. Be succinct.</p>
<p>3. Get your facts right.</p>
<p>4. Don’t use complicated language and fuzzy ideas.</p>
<p>5. Believe in what you write, especially if you are
committed to a just cause.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a Uncle Ho’s case, it was Independence and Liberty
for his country and people, the end of French colonial
rule and feudalism.</p>
<p>I would like to give as an example a practical lesson
in journalism President Ho Chi Minh gave my father,
journalist Wilfred Burchett, in his jungle headquarters
in Thai Nguyen, in March 1954, on the eve of the battle
of Dien Bien Phu.</p>
<p>Here’s how Wilfred Burchett tells the story:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What is this big action the French are talking about
at Dien Bien Phu?” I asked. President Ho turned his
sun helmet upside down on the table. Running his slim
fingers around the outer rim, he said “This is the
situation. Here are mountains and that is where our
forces are. Down there is the valley of Dien Bien Phu
– that’s where the French are with the best troops
they have in Indochina. They will never get out. It
may take some time, but they will never get out.”</p>
<p>“An Indochina Stalingrad?”</p>
<p>“In relation to conditions here, yes. In a modest
way, it is something like that.”</p>
<p>As I discovered in many subsequent meetings, this was
an illustration of President Ho’s capacity for
reducing complicated problems to a few words and
graphic images. The idea of the cream of France’s
operational troops in the bottom of Ho Chi Minh’s
sun-helmet remained with me all the way to Geneva and
at the conference itself as the historic battle raged
to its climax.</p>
<p>(Wilfred Burchett, <a
href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521718260/counterpunchmaga"><em>Memoirs
of a Rebel Journalist</em></a>).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And so Wilfred Burchett could report to the world, in
the first of six articles cabled from <em>Somewhere in
North Viet Nam</em>, on 31 March 54: A GREAT DISASTER
FOR THE FRENCH ARMY.</p>
<p>One month and one week later, on 7 May 1954, the French
army was defeated at the historic Battle of Dien Bien
Phu. And that was the end of French colonial rule over
Indochina.</p>
<p>That historic victory was not due to the Viet Minh’s
military superiority over the French army, supported by
American money and arms. It was due to the dedication of
millions of Vietnamese men and women, young and old, to
the cause of Independence and Liberty. Revolutionary
journalists, starting with Ho Chi Minh, played a
fundamental role in Viet Nam’s long and heroic struggle
against colonialism and feudalism, and later American
aggression.</p>
<p>I had the great honour to be seated among some of Viet
Nam’s veteran Revolutionary journalists on the shores of
beautiful Núi Cốc Lake in Thai Nguyen, watching young
singers, dancers and actors re-enact on the stage
episodes from those heroic times. I was thinking of the
many lives and talents, including revolutionary
journalists, sacrificed for the sacred cause of
Independence, Liberty and Unity.</p>
<p>I was also thinking that Revolutionary journalism is
only possible when truth is on your side. Then the word
is mightier than the sword. When words serve a just
cause, no army can defeat them.</p>
<p><em><strong>George Burchett</strong> is an artist and
occasional writer who was born in Ha Noi and works and
lives in Ha Noi.</em></p>
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