Mickey Mouse and friends beat Typhoon York and the bombing of the Chinese Embassy to take the top spot as students voted it news story of the year for 1999.
News that Disney was going to build a theme park in the SAR polled close to 72,000 votes, well ahead of the 55,497 received for Typhoon York or the 53,902 for the Nato bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.
The vote for the top news stories was organised by the New Generation Cultural Association, Hok Yau Club, New Territories Association of Societies' Youth Centre and the Hong Kong Students' Press Group.
Participants had to nominate their top 10 most interesting stories out of 31 news items. There were also competitions for best news comments and cartoons.
The event received a total of 83,478 votes from students at 129 secondary schools. In addition, 782 news comments and 216 cartoons on current affairs were entered for the competitions.
At the prize-giving ceremony, guest-of-honour Professor Wong Yuk-shan, vice-president of the City University of Hong Kong, said: 'To show concern about what happens around us is the start of concern about matters happening in our country.' Concern about current affairs helped people develop critical thinking and analytical skills, he said.
The top 10 news items were: The Disney theme park to be built in the SAR (71,564); Typhoon York (55,497); The bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia (53,902); China Airlines crash (47,400); The right of abode issue (46,684); The Y2K bug threat (42,384); The anti-piracy demonstration by the film industry (30,206); Sheung Shui villagers' clash with police over relocation and compensation matters (29,167); TV ratings war ( 28,723); Corruption related to building scandals (28,692).
