Ever since President Hồ Chí Minh read out the Declaration of Independence at Bà Định Square in the very first Vietnamese radio transmission of 2 September 1945, broadcasting in Việt Nam has played a crucial information and propaganda role, serving to promote patriotism and socialist ideology. Whilst contemporary Vietnamese radio and television programming places significantly more emphasis on light entertainment than it once did, the Vietnamese broadcasting sector is still 100 per cent government-controlled and remains an important tool for informing the people about state policies in an age of đổi mới ('renewal').