Post nabs 12 prizes, including six top honours, at Newspaper Society’s 2020 Hong Kong News Awards
- Among the winners were stories on the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, China’s seller’s market for medical supplies and Hong Kong’s 2019 anti-government protests
- ‘These are tumultuous times for Hong Kong – for the rest of the world, too … So it’s great to see our colleagues getting recognised and rewarded for their hard work,’ says Post editor-in-chief Tammy Tam
The South China Morning Post has earned 12 prizes – including six in the top spot – in the Newspaper Society’s 2020 Hong Kong News Awards.
Ma said that since the first cases emerged in Wuhan, doctors, scientists, citizens and journalists alike had been working hard, often heroically, to help people understand the disease better.
“Their sacrifice and hard work paid off when news stories helped people understand more about Covid-19”, she said. “There are so many things we still have to find out about this new virus and the pandemic. Good journalism should continue to play a role in this.”
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The series looked at how the pandemic, following on the heels of the previous year’s social unrest, had hammered Hong Kong’s economy and left tens of thousands struggling to survive.
Staff photographer Felix Wong netted the top prizes in both the Best Photograph (Features) and Best Photograph (Sport), while photographer Jonathan Wong earned second runner-up honours in the latter category.
Deputy creative director Adolfo Arranz netted the top prize for Best News Page Design (Single Page) for a page published in June, while he and designer Dennis Wong, creative director Darren Long, senior designer Marcelo Duhalde and graphic designer Kaliz Lee also secured the top prize in Best News Page Design (Series) for designs published in March, April, May and October.
“The series contains a number of excerpts from Rebel City: Hong Kong’s Year of Water and Fire, a collective effort by our team to document the 2019 protest movement that has changed Hong Kong forever. We are delighted and humbled by the recognition, which will only galvanise us to do better by our readers,” Lam said.
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The Post’s senior production editor Richard Kirk took second runner-up for Best Headline (English) for a header made in August.
“Once again, our award-winning journalists have made us proud,” Post editor-in-chief Tammy Tam said. “These are tumultuous times for Hong Kong – for the rest of the world, too – and work on the newsgathering front has been quite gruelling, to say the least. So it’s great to see our colleagues getting recognised and rewarded for their hard work.”
A total of 607 entries from 12 print newspapers entered this year’s contest by the city’s oldest newspaper association. All entries were reviewed and commented on by a panel with 52 panellists drawn from the news profession, business bodies, tertiary institutions and the government.