The show – Youth Dialogue - is a popular talk show on Vietnamese national television with young people as its target audience. The topics are of concern and interest for young people, and the programme often has speakers from the government, or people with expertise in a certain area.
Getting young people engaged
“The show’s topic, Petty Corruption and Severe Consequences, was an excellent theme”, said Elsa Håstad. “The young people in the studio audience showed engagement and commitment. This was about their future, and the level of interest and will to help reducing corruption was evident”.
The show brought up touchy subjects like how corruption affects the access of ordinary citizens, especially the poor, to public services. One of the solutions discussed was which roles and responsibilities are vital for young people to assume in their fight against corruption.
Openness
Several of the guests in the panel were from the government and from other public bodies, such as the Institute of Public Security.
“I was surprised by how openly the public representatives spoke about problems in the Vietnamese society, and shared solutions for addressing these problems” said Elsa Håstad.
The young audience raised several issues during the show, such as “how can we avoid to become a part of corruption when we grow up and get a job?”, and they received good responses from the panel of speakers.
Experiences from other countries
One part of the programme was looking at solutions in other countries, focusing on neighbouring countries in Asia. The Embassy of Sweden was specially invited to share experiences from Sweden.
“I talked about the importance of transparency, public access to information and taxation systems which are both transparent and clear, allowing citizens to know what to expect from the Government without any informal payments. I believe I got the message across”, said Elsa Håstad.
Embassy team prepared
The Embassy’s Anti-corruption team had prepared for the show, gathering facts, writing statements and agreed on which messages to use in the talk-show.
"I am pleased with the outreach of our anti-corruption work”, said Marie Ottosson, Head of the Development Section at the Embassy. “Anti-corruption is one of the main Swedish priorities for development cooperation, and we work hard to promote it in Vietnam. Reaching as many young people as we did through our participation in this show is important. The young people are the ones who shape the future”.
