• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.73-97
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• 2024

This study examined how Vietnamese news media reported on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) cases from 2017 to 2021. A quantitative content analysis was conducted on 663 news articles related to CSA from Vietnam's two most popular news media, vnexpress.net and dantri.vn. The study found that some news articles disclosed personal information such as gender, age, address, photograph, and occupation of both victims and perpetrators. The most frequently cited sources were government agencies, while experts on children's issues, who are arguably more relevant, were rarely referenced. The most prevalent news frame was weak punishment, followed by moral decay, tradition of saving face, and lack of proper sex education. These findings suggest that Vietnamese news media may fall short in raising awareness of CSA as a serious crime. This shortfall could result from a lack of professionalism among journalists and inadequate adherence to journalistic principles. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the role of news media and journalism ethics.