The South China Morning Post bagged nine prizes on Monday at the 2017 Hong Kong News Awards. At the ceremony hosted by the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said her administration valued freedom of speech and press freedom , describing them as the city’s “core values”. She said the work of the government was motivated by media scrutiny, adding that she spends a total of 45 minutes reading nine newspapers every day. Phila Siu, senior reporter at the Post , won the best English news writing prize for an article comparing Hong Kong’s and Beijing’s efforts to fight poverty . Coco Liu, for This Week in Asia , won the best English business writing award for an article looking at the trend of Southeast Asian businesses looking to China for inspiration in everything from e-commerce to news apps. Marcelo Duhalde won best news page design for his illustration of a story on the lives and health of different dog breeds in the city . Chief business reporter Enoch Yiu was the second runner-up in the best English business writing category for her story on the closure of a 126-year-old trading floor . This Week in Asia deputy editor Debasish Roy Chowdhury was second runner-up in the best English headline category. South China Morning Post bags five prizes at Asian Media Awards China desk reporters Choi Chi-yuk, Viola Zhou, Nectar Gan and Jun Mai won a merit prize in the best news reporting category for their coverage of the 19th Communist Party congress last October . Dennis Wong won a news page design merit prize, while Nora Tam and K.Y. Cheng were first runner-up and merit prizewinner in the best photograph for news and features awards respectively.