Tuoi Tre (which means “youth” in Vietnamese) is a major daily newspaper catering to the Ho Chi Minh City audience. The publisher runs Tuoi Tre daily, the weekly Tuoi Tre Cuoi Tuan and semimonthly Tuoi Tre Cuoi. Tuoi Tre is the largest circulated newspaper in Vietnam.


Media assets

Publishing: Tuoi Tre

State Media Matrix Typology: Independent State-Funded and State-Managed (ISFM)


Ownership and governance

The newspaper is run by the Communist Youth Union in the city of Ho Chi Minh, which has full decision-making power over the management of the publisher, according to experts and journalists specialized in Vietnam.

Source of funding and budget

Thanks to its popularity in both print form and online edition, Tuoi Tre generates significant advertising revenues. However, much of that comes from state companies. The financial operation of the newspaper is entirely controlled by the Communist Party, according to experts and journalists specialized in Vietnam. Therefore, it is fair to describe the outlet as a government-funded media outlet.

Editorial independence

Tuoi Tre is an unusual organization. Although it would normally fall in the state controlled media category as its editorial strategy is shaped by the Communist Party, the newspaper has a long history of clashes with the authorities dating back to the early 1990s. In recent years, the newspaper continued to publish critical articles about authorities, prompting the government to fine and even suspend the publication for several months in 2018. We don’t have information at the moment to confirm whether the newspaper continues this pro-reform line, but given the tightly controlled media market in Vietnam and the editorial independence (or at least valiance) of Tuoi Tre, we believe it doesn’t deserve the SCME Label until more evidence of its pro-government bias is available.

No domestic statute and no independent oversight mechanism that would validate the editorial independence of Tuoi Tre have been identified.

October 2023