South China Morning Post takes top honours at Hong Kong News Awards

The South China Morning Post scooped 10 prizes in the Newspaper Society’s 2016 Hong Kong News Awards.

The Post swept the Best English News Writing category, bagging all three prizes. Chief reporter Niall Fraser won top prize for his article, “Licensed to make a ­killing”, about the mysterious ­circumstances surrounding the suicide of Macau’s customs ­service head Lai Man Wai.

Mai Jun and Li Jing from the China desk won first and second runner-up awards respectively. Mai’s winning article was “The lingering nostalgia for the Cultural Revolution” and Li’s was “Life is far from normal for returnees”.

Also from the China desk, deputy China editor Zhou Xin won the first runner-up prize for Best English Business News Writing for his story on China’s “zombie” steel industry. While Beijing bureau chief Jane Cai won second runner-up for her article “Cracks in the concrete” about the economic struggles of Yixing.

First prize for Best English Headline went to senior editor David Moore with “Guangdong police break silence to say nothing.”

Editor-in-chief Tammy Tam said: “Our team has once again done the SCMP proud. The accolades are an encouraging endorsement of the editorial excellence that we have been striving towards. Credible, balanced and accurate reporting has become even more vital and valued at a time when events are sometimes shrouded in uninformed speculation and disinformation,” she said.

The Post’s design team was also acknowledged as head of layout and design Carl Jones and art director Emilio Rivera won top prize for Best Series News Page Design for a Focus piece on the G20 in Hangzhou. Graphic designer Brian Wang received second runner-up for Best Single News Page Design for the article “Hong Kong cabbies step up a gear”.

Photographers Sam Tsang and David Wong received awards for their work in the Best News Photographic and Best Sports Photographic categories.

“For me, the best part of our success this time is that several of the winners were part of larger multimedia packages,” Tam said. “This validates the efforts we have taken in embracing digital media even as we maintain quality of on all platforms.”