2010 Award Winners
Group B
English-language newspapers that circulate primarily in one or two countries, English-language magazines with circulation under 50,000 and English-language websites with 5 million monthly uniques or below. Independent online publications in English.

 

1. Excellence in Investigative Reporting

Award for Excellence

Publication:South China Morning Post
Entry Title: Thailand's secret refugees
Journalist:Alan Morison, Chutima Sidasathian, Maseeh Rahman, Ian Young, Greg Torode
Comments: An excellent series that uncovered serious government abuses and had a material impact in correcting them. Exclusivity. Strong reporting. Hard-hitting piece with international implications.

Honorable Mention

Publication:Philippine Daily Inquirer
Entry Title: Special report on the Legacy scam
Journalist:Daxim L. Lucas
Comments:Interesting follow-up to an important story. Dogged reporting uncovered the real story of corruption underlying a banking scandal. Good exclusive, nice research.

2. Excellence in Reporting Breaking News

Award for Excellence

Publication:Jakarta Globe
Entry Title:It sounded like thunder, then all hell broke loose
Journalist:Staff
Comments:Gripping survivor stories, detailed, vivid writing, great illustrations. Narrative structure, great balance between micro and macro perspectives, really good story telling. Best layouts, complete content in terms of timelines, context, visuals, maps, etc. Superb, no-holds-barred coverage of a major, avoidable dam disaster.

Honorable Mention

Publication:South China Morning Post
Entry Title:The Xinjiang riots
Journalist:Choi Chi-yuk, Shi Jiangtao, Will Clem, Josephine Ma, Al Guo, Kristine Kwok
Comments:Thorough, riveting reporting of major global story under very difficult circumstances. Impressive, comprehensive coverage considering this is China, including grainy pictures likely non-professional, user-generated content, good visuals.

3. Excellence in Business Reporting

Award for Excellence

Publication:Mint
Entry Title: Industrial series
Journalist:Maitreyee Handique
Comments:Very powerful series on dark side of India's growing economy, combining lots of conflicting statistics (highlighting the problem of unreliable statistics) yet driving home specific impacts on individual lives. Exposed "the ugly side of India's cheap labor story" in eye-opening fashion. It tackled a topic that few wanted to discuss but one that affects hundreds of thousands of workers in India. It's a story that needed to be told and had the broadest impact of any of the entries.

Honorable Mention

Publication:South China Morning Post
Entry Title: Grand illusions
Journalist:Olga Wong, Joyce Ng, Peggy Sito, Maria Chan, Chloe Lai, Sandy Li, Fox Yi Hu
Comments:Strong series about an important issue. I loved this series. Nothing is of more interest in Hong Kong than the property market, and this series had it all: liveliness, vivid writing, exposure of fraud, the tie-in to HK$/yuan limits from the mainland, a study, good illustrations, etc.

4. Excellence in Human Rights Reporting

Award for Excellence

Publication:South China Morning Post
Entry Title: Thailand's secret refugees
Journalist:Alan Morison, Chutima Sidasathian, Maseeh Rahman, Ian Young, Greg Torode
Comments:Excellent investigative work that exposed serious human rights abuses of oppressed people. Intrepid reporting of a hidden subject. This is a high-caliber series buttressed by solid on-the-ground reporting and great pictures. All militaries are challenging subjects for investigative reporters and Thailand’s is no exception. The team clearly went to great lengths to get sources, break news, and provide the details that prodded the government into action.

Honorable Mention

Publication:South China Morning Post
Entry Title: Hunan's village of the damned
Journalist:He Huifeng, Shi Jiangtao, Choi Chi-yuk
Comments:Excellent on the ground reporting for a powerful series that highlighted environmental degradation in China. A comprehensive package with clear, unsentimental writing and plenty of statistics to support the findings. This is a moving picture of the lives of Chinese villagers destroyed by greed and industrialization. The team dug deep and stayed with the story long enough to expose the scale of the issue and the callousness of the state.

5. Excellence in Reporting on the Environment

Award for Excellence

Publication:South China Morning Post
Entry Title: Hunan's village of the damned
Journalist:He Huifeng, Shi Jiangtao, Choi Chi-yuk
Comments:Good reporting on serious concerns. Great investigative reporting that also gave insight into the stark imbalance of power between villagers and the officials and companies that profit at their expense. Kudos for doing this in a difficult reporting environment, and for going back months later to check up on what happened after the journalistic spotlight dimmed. Moving, well researched and beautifully written.

Honorable Mention

Publication:Jakarta Globe
Entry Title: Water worries
Journalist:Staff
Comments:An outstanding package, with great graphics, great photos and very nice, comprehensive stories. I liked the wide range of reporting, quotes from ordinary people, from government officials, academics, activists and international experts. Excellent series on Jakarta's myriad water woes, with lessons for many Asian cities dealing with rapid urbanization. Great reporting, a real service to the community you serve.

6. Excellence in Feature Writing

Award for Excellence

Publication:Jakarta Globe
Entry Title: Where losing the forest means losing your identity
Journalist:Dewi Kurniawati
Comments:Superb, an excellent balance of objective information and lucid description. The reporter took us to the scene, with rich, colorful detail, and introduced us to interesting people in a world that's very different from our own. The story was long but I didn't find it boring, and I thought it weaved in analysis and explanatory material well. Well crafted and told with humanity.

Honorable Mention

Publication:The Straits Times
Entry Title: Forgive but not forget
Journalist:Sim Chi Yin
Comments:Thoughtful and insightful. The reporter DID work hard to find interesting people and I liked the way she raised uncomfortable issues/points of view, including the people who are actually quite wary of the Khmer Rouge tribunals. Overall a nice package with well crafted writing and fine grass roots reporting.

7. Excellence in Opinion Writing

Award for Excellence

Publication:Mint
Entry Title:Café Economics
Journalist:Niranjan Rajadhyaksha
Comments:Erudite and readable. Asked smart questions and engaged the audience in a discussion of interesting, pertinent subjects with a clear writing style and thoughtful opinions.

Honorable Mention

Publication:South China Morning Post
Entry Title:China's rise
Journalist:Greg Torode
Comments:Solid, prescient columns that did an admirable job of analyzing the repercussions of China's new position on the world stage. An interesting eye on China -- especially its maneuvering in the rest of East Asia. Important subjects. Well-reported and well-argued columns.

8. Excellence in News Photography

Award for Excellence

Publication:Jakarta Globe
Entry Title: Forgotten
Journalist: Yudhi Sukma Wijaya
Comments:Very powerful, compelling and stunning. I love the extreme risk taking in this image, it challenges the viewer. Dying woman was forgotten but her image cannot be erased from reader memory.

Honorable Mention

Publication:South China Morning Post
Entry Title: China's pollution plague
Journalist:K Y Cheng, Dickson Lee, Sam Tsang
Comments:Highly provocative. Excellent composition and color. Coverage of this critical issue is strongly enhanced by these excellent photographs.

9. Excellence in Feature Photography

Award for Excellence

Publication:Hong Kong Tatler
Entry Title: Inner space
Journalist:Virgile Simon Bertrand
Comments:Creative composition and great lighting. An impressive good work. Nice sense of mood and space.

Honorable Mention

Publication:DestinAsian
Entry Title: Kiwi country
Journalist:Jason Michael Lang
Comments:Captured the rugged beauty and stark isolation of the region. Mixing landscapes with intimate portraits and still life details, this selection captured life on the west coast of New Zealand's south island.

10. Excellence in Special Coverage

Award for Excellence

Publication:Jakarta Globe
Entry Title: Water worries
Journalist:Staff
Comments:Significant, comprehensive, and attractive. Interesting topic and good to offer solutions perspective. Compelling for lay readers and policy-makers. Their analysis of the water crisis was sharp. Excellent photos and graphics brought the issue to life. Statistics were effective and led the reader to reach the same conclusions that the authors reached in their well-written articles.

Honorable Mention

Publication:China Economic Review
Entry Title: Cleanup job: Assessing China's green potential
Journalist: CER Editorial Team
Comments:Significant topic, well designed. Good presentation, great topic, balanced treatment. Comprehensive coverage, both in reportage as well as in opinion. A thoroughly researched, well-written section full of statistics that the authors were able to put into perspective. Opinion pieces also were well grounded in facts and were persuasive in their arguments.

11. Excellence in Information Graphics

Award for Excellence

Publication:South China Morning Post
Entry Title: China's economic miracle
Journalist: Terry Pontikos
Comments:Really fun and told the story without the need for lots of words. My favorite, especially the pie charts chosen in the best way. Distinctive.

Honorable Mention

Publication:The New Paper
Entry Title: Icon over Mumbai waters
Journalist:Lee Hup Kheng, Teoh Yi Chie
Comments:Clear and concise. Facts were easy to digest. Strong design, informative, easy to read. World worked well in a textbook, well done.

12. Excellence in Newspaper Design

Award for Excellence

Publication:The Standard
Entry Title: Obama inauguration
Journalist: Joe Lo, Danny Wong
Comments:Packed with information without appearing busy. Great use of photographs, particularly in showing historical context. Good tie-ins to Hong Kong.

Honorable Mention

Publication:Jakarta Globe
Entry Title: Jakarta Globe newspaper
Journalist:Staff
Comments:Shows how a full-sized broadsheet should be designed. Clean lines, clean focus. Fronts show multiple points of entry for readers. Punchy graphics. Good keys to online resources.

13. Excellence in Magazine Design

Award for Excellence

Publication:Harper's BAZAAR Singapore
Entry Title: Harper's BAZAAR Singapore September 2009 issue
Journalist:Giselle Go, Bridget Hope, Daphne Tso
Comments:Good high-image pages up front; back well pages {"The Hot List"} a bit tight. "Honey Trap" spread photo is a showstopper, and "Great Expectations" contains some strong shots. "Studded Sensations" explodes the products it covers. Feature well is energetic. This entry has the most "moments" of any reviewed.

Honorable Mention

Publication:Prestige Hong Kong
Entry Title: Prestige Hong Kong November 2009 issue
Journalist: Darren Long
Comments:Great fashion spreads and photos.

14. The Scoop Award

Award for Excellence

Publication:South China Morning Post
Entry Title: Hitman targets Martin Lee, Jimmy Lai
Journalist:Barclay Crawford, Ambrose Leung, Fox Yi Hu
Comments:It covered a plot to kill former Hong Kong Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming and media owner Jimmy Lai. Over three months, the articles ably provided an exclusive of the putative hit, an evocative response from Lee, a reconstruction of the plan and details of cross-border arrests and prosecution. A clean scoop bagged by strong sourcing and confirmed by the subject himself.

15. Journalist of the Year

Award for Excellence

Publication:Jakarta Globe
Journalist:Dewi Kurniawati
Comments:An inquisitive, passionate writer with a fearless investigative streak. Crisp, lively writing and creative use of layout, graphics, pictures and fact boxes brought to life some very important stories. Her on-the-street reporting, with excellent use of interviews, coupled with her ability to grasp the bigger picture makes for some compelling and powerful story telling. In her series on migrant workers, she humanized the issues and brought a far-flung story home. She showed deft interviewing skills in the Miss Universe Q&A.

 

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