GROUP A
Regional newspapers, large magazines and wire services published in English

1. Excellence in Explanatory Reporting

Award: International Herald Tribune - "Crisis on the Yellow River" (by Jim Yardley)

Honorable Mention: Wall Street Journal Asia - "China's Naked Capitalism" (by Shai Oster, Mei Fong, Jane Spencer, Gordon Fairclough, James T. Areddy & Andrew Browne)

International Herald Tribune: An exhilarating fresh approach on a subject much written about- China's economic perils and gains, using the Yellow River as a powerful symbol.

2. Excellence in Feature Writing

Award: Wall Street Journal Asia - "China's Naked Capitalism" (by Shai Oster, Mei Fong & Jane Spencer)

Honorable Mention: The Financial Times - "The Return of Japan" (by David Pilling)

Wall Street Journal Asia: Rich in detail, easy to read report on the many-faceted impact of rapid growth. Highest standard of writing and reportage. The winners have every reason to feel they have done a great job.

3. Excellence in Human Rights Reporting

Award: BusinessWeek - "Secrets, Lies and Sweatshops" (by Dexter Roberts & Pete Engardio)

Honorable Mention: Wall Street Journal Asia - "Speaking Out in China" (by Geoffrey A. Fowler, Jason Dean & Juying Qin)

BusinessWeek: Ground breaking and intellectually honest to a fault. The reporting was dogged, thorough and convincing, the writing clear and un-hyped. Multi-layered, well researched with strong anecdotes. The piece leaned over backwards to be fair -- not only were those criticized offered opportunity to comment, but they were quoted at length. Most importantly, broke ground on a tough-to-report area. China is one of the most difficult areas to report in, and the reporters got details that made changes for the better.

4. Excellence in Special Issue/ Special Section

Award: TIME Asia - "Coming Clean"

Honorable Mention: TIME Asia - "60 Years of Asian Heroes"

TIME Asia: An exemplary job of chronicling Asia's abysmal environmental degradation. Top notch reporting in a variety of countries and clear, unemotional writing that conveyed the breadth of the disaster facing the continent. A compelling report on the impact of continuing poverty and deprivation.

5. Excellence in Feature Photography

Award: TIME Asia - "Between Curtain and Crescent"

Honorable Mention: Fortune - "Next Stop, Lhasa" (by Gueorgui Pinkhassov)

TIME Asia: Visually convincing imagery, illustrating pretty much the same theme, "Islam." Strong set of pictures, sensitive and skillful- photojournalism at its best.

6. Excellence in Magazine Design

Award: TIME Asia

Honorable Mention: Financial Times (by Lee Coad)

TIME Asia: The kind of consistently crisp and easy-to-navigate layouts we've come to expect from Time. The packages Best of Asia, Coming Clean and 60 Years of Asian Heroes are propelled by striking spreads and excellent integration of graphics, photos and text. A roster of design techniques informs and integrates the work.

7. Excellence in Magazine Front Cover Design

Award: Financial Times - "Japan is Back" (by Lee Coad)

Honorable Mention: TIME Asia - "China's Rural Rage"

Financial Times: Striking simplicity of image and text nail this cover. Very clever use of standard imagery imaginatively presented.

8. Excellence in Business Reporting

Award: BusinessWeek - "Secrets, Lies and Sweatshops" (by Dexter Roberts & Pete Engardio)

Honorable Mention: Forbes Asia - "Businessmen of the Year: The Fung Brothers" (by Robyn Meredith)

BusinessWeek: Nicely done job blending vivid personality profile with the story of an important but under-covered global business trend.

9. Excellence in Reporting on the Environment

Award: International Herald Tribune - "China and Global Warming Series" (by Keith Bradsher & David Barboza)

Honorable Mention: Wall Street Journal Asia - "China's Environment: The Price of Growth" (by Shai Oster, Jane Spencer, Gordon Fairclough & Mei Fong)

International Herald Tribune: Excellent reporting and Bradsher did a great job ferreting out the truth about how carbon trading works in China, and the damage done by China's over-investment in cheap polluting coal-fired power plants.

10. Excellence in Opinion Writing

Award: Financial Times - "The Myths of China's Miracle" (by Guy de Jonquieres)

Honorable Mention: TIME Asia - "Blind Justice" (by Hannah Beech)

Financial Times: Deep and insightful subject knowledge combined with solid argument and sharp writing. Very well-reported, and takes a hard look at the global myths that surround China's economic growth. The only criticism is that the article on delaying democracy in Hong Kong doesn't really fit in with the others and doesn't add value to the package. Overall very promising writings, both in terms of topics covered, as well as writing style. His articles have rightly provoked a response, and that itself is the best indicator of the success of an opinion writer.

11. Excellence in Public Service Journalism

Award: Newsweek (by Ron Moreau & Sami Yousafzai)

Honorable Mention: BusinessWeek - "Secrets, Lies and Sweatshops" (by Dexter Roberts & Pete Engardio)

Newsweek: Outstanding and insightful, close-to-ground reporting.

12. Excellence in Reporting Breaking News

Award: Newsweek - "We Are A Nuclear Power" (by Michael Hirsh, Melinda Liu, George Wehrfritz, Mark Hosenball, Richard Wolffe, B.J. Lee, Sarah Schafer, Christopher Dickey, Zahid Hussain, Akiko Kashiwagi & Owen Matthews)

Honorable Mention: The Wall Street Journal Asia - "Thailand: The Coup" (by James Hookway & Patrick Barta)

Newsweek: Newsweek's cover story on the North Korean nuclear bomb is a masterful example of how to explain a complicated event taking place in an inscrutable corner of the world for a general audience. The news, the context, the opinion and the implications are all laid out in a readable and accessible way, while also providing lots of meaty content.

13. The Scoop Award

Award: Financial Times - "The Man who Scuppered the Deal of the Year" (by Justine Lau, Tom Mitchell & Sundeep Tucker)

Honorable Mention: The Financial Times - "How Thaksin Sold the Family Silver to Singapore" (by John Burton, Francesco Guerrera & Amy Kazmin)

Financial Times: It showed some digging. Delving into China's links with Hong Kong is difficult at the best of times but it was ground breaking to see the mechanics of what happened in this complex and controversial deal. I like this scoop as it has actual political importance in showing some of the behind the scenes dealing in HK- it was not just a getting break on a story.