Before the 1960s, the news media had no interest in Vietnam. Black American journalists followed events only when breaking news happened in the region. Those who covered the beginning of the war in Vietnam were only reporting the rise of communism in the country. The official agencies that handled the press in Vietnam during the early years had little control over what those reporters wrote. The French colonial government set up a system of censorship, but correspondents had only to travel to Singapore or Hong Kong to say what they wanted. American reporters who went to Vietnam at the beginning of the 1960s were reporting the story, while the government in America was telling them to get on the field.[citation needed]