Trying to keep up with the news in Vietnam can be daunting if you have to rely on the local English news sites. From what I heard from my Vietnamese friends, getting up to date news in the Vietnamese language can be hard to come by as well. The concept of Breaking News has not hit the news agencies in Vietnam quite yet.
Below are just a list of online news sites in English that I peruse daily for any information about what is happening in Vietnam:
Communist Party of Vietnam Online Newspaper
I noticed that the majority of English news stories originate from the Communist Party’s own news site. Many times, the stories will be published there before being published at Thanh Nien News, Vietnam News and Vietnam Net Bridge. When criticizing the Vietnamese government, such as this year’s blogging regulation, several of the well known media actually quoted or reposted stories that originated from the CP’s news site. that includes Time magazine, AP and Reuters to name a few.
Vietnam Net Bridge
Vietnam Net Bridge is my main source for Vietnam English news. It is located up in Hanoi. They republish the CP news stories plus add many other stories centered on Hanoi and north Vietnam. Their picture gallaries are quite interesting.
I think a large number of Expats normally visit Vietnam Net Bridge on a daily basis. It is the most up to date source for news in Vietnam.
Viet Nam News
The most widely read print English newspaper in Vietnam. You will see many Expats with a copy in the backpacker area. Many do not know but they also have an online version.
Many of the news stories are republished from the CP news site. Viet Nam News focuses on the English speaking audience for Vietnam so you can read stories from Hanoi, Saigon and Danang. Viet Nam News updates their stories daily 7 days a week.
Thanh Nien News
I used to visit this site daily. It is similar to Vietnam Net Bridge but focuses on Saigon. Their server used to be hosted in the US but since they moved their site to Vietnam, it is down nearly 2-3 times, or more, a week.
Thanh Nien News, when online, is a great source of news for Saigon. This site usually will publish stories about legal changes that affect foreigners.
When online, they tend to update just from Mondays to Fridays.
Intellasia.net
A widely read site for the businessmen in Vietnam. It is a good source of information for English news. The majority of the stories are just repost from the four main news sites above.
Intellasia is banned for VNPT users in Vietnam. At times, their site will be blocked by FPT. Stories are updated Mondays thru Fridays primarily but I do see postings during weekends sometimes.
Chao Vietnam
Chao Vietnam aggregates news stories from all the sites above and posts the stories at their blog. Occassionally you get stories posted from sites outside of the above. It is a convenient way of getting daily news from Vietnam.
VNStockNews
Another aggregate site that posts stories focussing on the Vietnamese stock market. VNStockNews updates daily.
Thank you for sharing this with us. I find this extremely useful.
These sources you have listed are also my primary sources of VNese news and current events. I also have noticed that recently the Thanh Nien News site has been available only sporadically. (It’s available right now…)
I would sure like to know the website the gold shops use to set the exchange rates.
Anybody know?
After I recently moved I started subscriptions with the TNN & VNN, they both started delivery early the next morning with no problem.
@Clifton: I have been asked to create such a website. Remind me when I get back from the US.
I did one for myself following the concept of alltop. You can check out at http://www.thevietnamnews.net. It’s aggregating news from major vietnamese sources