Chương I Nghị định 119/2020/NĐ-CP: Quy định chung

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

This Decree provides for administrative violations, methods, fine amounts, remedial measures, power to make administrative reports and power to impose penalties for administrative violations in journalistic and publishing activities.

Article 2. Regulated entities

1. Individuals and organizations that commit acts of administrative violation in journalistic and publishing activities in the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

2. Those having power to make administrative offense reports and impose administrative penalties.

3. Relevant organizations and individuals.

4. Organizations defined in clause 1 of this Article include:

a) Media and publishing organizations established in accordance with the law on press and publishing;

b) Regulatory agencies;

c) Economic organizations operating under the provisions of law;

d) Foreign organizations, resident offices of foreign media organizations and representative offices of foreign publishers or foreign publishing organizations in Vietnam;

dd) Public sector entities and other organizations as prescribed by law on participation in journalistic and publishing activities.

Article 3. Methods of penalties, remedial measures

1. For administrative violations in journalistic and publishing activities, violating organizations and individuals must face primary penalties which are warnings or fines.

2. Depending on the nature and seriousness of their violations, the violating individuals and organizations may also be subject to the following additional penalties:

a) Suspending the license for 01 to 12 months, including: license for operating print newspapers, print magazines, audio and visual newspapers, online newspapers and magazines, license for publishing publications, supplements, license for publishing special issue, license for providing pay broadcasting, certificate of registration of receiving foreign television signals directly from satellite, license for channel production programs, permit for import of print newspapers and magazines, certificate of registration of provision of foreign channels on pay broadcasting, permit for setting up news websites, paper newsletter publishing license, special edition publishing license, license for setting up a publisher, license for setting up representative offices of foreign publishers or foreign publishing organizations in Vietnam, license for printing publications, the license for business in importing publications;

b) Confiscate the exhibits and means of administrative violations;

c) Suspend operations for 01 to 12 months.

3. In addition to the penalties specified in clauses 1 and 2 of this Article, violating administrative individuals and organizations may also be subject to one or several of the following remedial measures:

a) Must making correction or apology;

b) Must recall the journalistic products, information products of journalistic nature, radio or television programs or publications in violation of law provisions;

c) Must remove untruthful information, information in violation of law that has been posted or distributed on online newspapers and magazines or news websites; must remove the radio and television programs; must remove on-demand content and value-added content of online broadcasting applications; must remove the electronic publications in violation of the provisions of law; must remove the introduction, advertisements and links to websites with illegal contents;

d) Must return the illegal benefits gained from the administrative violations;

dd) Must repost the correction and apology;

e) Must repost the conclusion of the competent authority in full;

g) Must make public apology;

h) Must deposit the journalistic products as prescribed by law;

i) Must deposit the journalistic products at the right place and with the right quantity;

k) Must deposit or submit publications tot the National Library of Vietnam as per regulations;

l) Must return the illegally seized means and documents of the journalist or reporter;

m) Must re-export for publication imported as materials for international seminars which allowed to organized in Vietnam with permission of the Vietnamese competent authority or assets belong to institution, family and individual that are used privately after it has been used; must re-export the print newspapers or magazines without registering the list of imported newspapers with MIC before importing them;

n) Must recall the journalistic products, information products of journalistic nature, radio or television programs or publications in violation of law provisions;

o) Must remove news or articles on online newspapers or magazines, radio programs or television programs with contents inconsistent with the principles and purposes stated in the licenses; must remove the news, posts that are not posted correctly with the contents of information specified in the license to set up news websites;

p) Must revoke domain names and IP.

Article 4. Fine amounts and power to impose penalties

1. The maximum fine amount for each act of administrative violation in journalistic and publishing activities is VND 200,000,000 for organizations and VND 100,000,000 for individuals.

2. The fines for the administrative violations specified in Chapters II and III of this Decree are the fines applicable to organizations, except for the violations specified in Article 6 of the Decree for individuals.

For the same act of administrative violation, the fine amount for individuals is equal to a half of the fine amount for organizations.

3. The power to impose fines of those holding titles specified in Chapter IV of this Decree is the competence applicable to the administrative violation committed by organization, the power to impose a fine on an act of administrative violation committed by individual equal to a half of the power to impose a fine on organization.