Lightning strikes for Post at WAN-IFRA media awards as storms infographic wins gold
Mong Kok riot reports and design also score highly at prestigious awards
The South China Morning Post bagged one gold and two silver accolades at the prestigious WAN-IFRA Asia Media Awards this year.
Meticulously plugging in data from the Hong Kong Observatory, the project featured a map plotting more than 5,100 lightning strikes that occurred within a single hour on July 9 last year, and an interactive graphic showing different types of lightning and how they form.
The newspaper also won a silver award in the breaking news category for its coverage of the Mong Kok riot in February last year, when one of the city’s busiest districts went into virtual lockdown during hours of unrest following a crackdown on illegal street food hawkers.
Police fired two warning shots and protesters hurled bricks and set fires during the incident.
Meanwhile, head of layout and design Carl Jones received a silver award for best overall newspaper design for his work on the Sunday Morning Post, theweekend publication of the Post.
Post editor-in-chief Tammy Tam said the performance reflected the high-quality journalism for which the newspaper is known.
“We will continue providing and improving upon the incisive, informative and engaging news content that our readers expect from the SCMP brand name,” she said.
Organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, the awards aim to promote the highest publishing standards in the fields of newspaper and magazine design, infographics, printing, editorial content, marketing, community service and photojournalism among media houses in the Asia-Pacific, South Asia and the Middle East.
Winners were honoured at a gala dinner in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
The Post scooped three honours last year, including a gold award in the category of breaking news for its coverage of the huge warehouse explosion in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin on August 12, 2015, killing 173 people.
