Group A is for Regional / Large Publication
Regional newspapers, large magazines and wire services published in English

1. Excellence in Explanatory Reporting

Honorable Mention: International Herald Tribune - "Delhi's Transformation"

Comment: India and its capital, the talk and walk of the economic world, revealed in social depth. The stories cover key aspects of the day-to-day aspects of life in a fast-growing metropolis, in an engaging but serious way. A well researched, well explained, diverse selection of stories that really got to the heart of the real Delhi in all its complicated glory from the people on the ground.

Award: TIME Asia - "Beyond Faith"

Comment: Yet more insight into a potent global force that much of the rest of the world community still struggles to understand. An impressively lucid treatment of a complex and important topic that blended good contemporary reportage with insightful but not heavy-handed use of history to provide context. The reporter also did a good job of drawing out the nuances of Islam in the three countries covered - India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - which share many aspects of culture but where Islam has developed quite differently. The standout as it was jam packed full of information, explained in a simple yet cerebral way, and it’s a complex, emotive and hugely important subject. The graphics were also extent.

2. Excellence in Feature Writing

Honorable Mention: The Financial Times - "China Politics"

Comment: A series written with great style that gives readers a real idea off how China's leadership works

Award: Business Week - "The Trouble with India & Broken China"

Comment: Provides compelling new insights into a well covered story

3. Excellence Human Rights Reporting

Honorable Mention: Financial Times - "North Korea"

Comment: An excellent overview of one of the great unknowns that must be closely observed in Asia. Good reporting and analysis of key issues from different sides. It has taken a long time for the FT to tackle this issue and report on the plight of the refuges in China. This was another example of a journalist supplying excellent insight about a notoriously difficult subject. The reporter has clearly gotten to know her story, and was able to give the reader a detailed view of North Korea from a variety of angles.

Award: International Herald Tribune - "Inside Myanmar"

Comment: Beautifully, bravely written. Exemplary choice of viewpoints. Very strong vivid reporting, original insights from a strong variety of sources, giving different angles of a big story and personalizing it. Vivid portrayals of the different actors in this tragic drama that stuck in the mind. A remarkable job of obtaining and communicating detailed information in what must have been horrendously difficult and dangerous conditions. It's surprising that the reporter was able to talk to so many people when the authorities must have been watching everyone, citizen and tourists.

4. Excellence in Special Issue/ Special Section

Honorable Mention: Financial Times - "India at 60"

Comment: An excellent, highly readable analysis. Multiple views – including historical perspective provided by William Dalrymple – capture a country in which ostentation and growth vie with populations officially known as "Other Backward Classes."

Award: TIME Asia - "Hong Kong 10th Anniversary Issue"

Comment: An excellent, highly targeted analysis of the many changes - subtle as well as general - that have take place over the decade. Well written and cleanly designed, this package captures both the dynamism and the enduring Chinese-ness of this "pulsating organism." The continuing dance with the mother, mainland and the rise of an Asian expat community are clearly conveyed. There's historical perspective as well as the look ahead in this take on a Hong Kong that is "excited, acute, pushy, ceaselessly on the make".

5. Excellence in Feature Photography

Honorable Mention: Newsweek - "Honor Thy Father"

Comment: Arresting, beautiful as well as weird images best display the story theme. Wonderfully poignant, surreal, images leave you wondering if such a place really exists in this world.

Award: International Herald Tribune - "Citizens of Nowhere"

Comments: These superb shots from photographer Greg Constantine capture the heart of the story in images that mesh both news and art. The images are all strong, and each one is composed to clearly illustrate the issues. Arresting, beautiful as well as weird images best display the story theme.

6. Excellence in News Photography

Honorable Mention: Bloomberg News - "Bhutto"

Comment: Stunning images, striking moments

Award: TIME Asia - "Burmese Days"

Comment: Moody pictures after the pro-democracy protests.

7. Excellence in Newspaper Design

Award: Financial Times

Comment: The front page and section fronts are inviting and intelligent. The FT Weekend section fronts and inside pages are wonderful, with inviting features on their front pages and internal stuff that is witty and tastefully designed. It's a splendid newspaper.

8. Excellence in Magazine Design

Honorable Mention: TIME Asia - "Best of Asia / India 60th Special / HK 10th Anniversary issue"

Comment: The images are strong enough to overcome a somewhat dry design template. Clean design moves from a chunked front of the book to ample photo displays. Thoughtful mix of information graphics and typography make this once dowdy magazine the leader of the weekly pack. Put significant intelligence into design for reader appeal.

Award: Her World - "The Best of Beauty / Get Your Man / Obsessorise!"

Comment: Lively layout with contemporary, punchy use of photography. Still looks like it is really stretching resources to build the magazine, but a creditable personality and flow. Well used white space allows for clean contemporary look.

9. Excellence in Magazine Front Cover Design

Honorable Mention: TIME Asia - "Japan's Open Door"

Comment: clever idea, brilliantly executed. Like the way the circle goes over the Time branding. Like the clean white background and the subhead is clean, and to the point.

Award: The Wall Street Journal Asia - "Asia's Highlands"

Comment: Very inviting, make captures the essence of the hill station.

10. Excellence in Business Reporting

Honorable Mention: International Herald Tribune - "Outsourcing, Revisited"

Comment: This series of articles on the many aspects of a single topic - outsourcing to India - shows how a resourceful and creative journalist can milk a topic successfully, breaking it down and looking in turn at a number of aspects, providing depth through the growing grasp of the subject the journalist gains as the series progresses.

Award: TIME Asia - "The Sopranos State"

Comments: This stood out above all the rest as an impressive piece of investigative working piecing together difficult information about a very closed state. The work done, the result of a two months' investigation, represents a step forward understanding the clandestine and criminal dealings of the North Korean state. An ambitious project which seeks to break open some of the secrecy surrounding the financing of the North Korean state.

11. Excellence in Reporting on the Environment

Honorable Mention: The Wall Street Journal Asia - "China's Three Gorges Dam"

Comment: Gives a new perspective to the controversial project.

Award: International Herald Tribune - "Choking on Growth" Series

12. Excellence in Opinion Writing

Honorable Mention: Financial Times - "South Asia"

Comment: The reporter demonstrates a convincing grasp of the Sucontinent's complexities. He mixes a compelling analysis with some deft, well-crafted touches that make his column both readable and informative.

The articles are crisp, punchy, and tight. He handles the complexity of issues deftly - all the time explaining, highlighting nuances. Johnson keeps the reader engaged and riveted on the unfolding logic of his analysis, an effective columnist.

Award: Financial Times - "China"

Comment: The best entry by far. The reporter writes with authority and insight, connecting up the dots between the current events and the fundamental problems besetting China in the throes of historic economic change.

The reporter writes thoughtfully, intelligently, and elegantly. What sets him apart is that he situates issues within a context. He brings different angles of a story together and underscores their relationships. The reader is given not only the big picture but a sharper and much more illuminating version of reality.

13. Excellence in Public Service Journalism

Honorable Mention: International Herald Tribune - "China's product safety record exposed"

Comment: Two stories in this series of six: the suicide of a toy factory owner in Foshan, and the story of the reformer who gave in to graft are notable for a providing insight into the social and economic pressures that have led to product safety scandals.

Award: The Wall Street Journal Asia - "China's Three Gorges Dam"

Comment: In depth and vivid powerful reporting, the result of considerable investigative work. The profile of environmental activist Dai Qing, China's role in dam building across the world, and the Canada's involvement in the Three.

14. Excellence in Reporting of Breaking News

Honorable Mention: International Herald Tribune - "Crackdown in Myanmar"

Comment: Mydans has years of experience covering Southeast Asia, and it showed - to the reader's advantage - in the way he added depth and context to a story that he was forced to cover from afar. There were some really good pieces here. My problem with the Times' reporting on this story was that it was all done from Thailand. One of the stories mentioned that foreign journalists weren't being allowed in. But Time got in and Reuters covered it on the ground, as well.

Award: TIME Asia - "Burmese Days: A Rangoon Diary"

Comment: The reporter brought the reader directly and vividly into a scene that in other cases was by necessity pieced together second-hand from eye-witness accounts, images on the Internet, and interviews with analysts. First-person, subjective reporting doesn't often win journalism contests but I thought this piece deserved to. As a reader I'm capable of filtering for this guy's biases; what I get in return are insights into the people living this story that I got nowhere else.

15. The Scoop Award

Honorable Mention: TIME Asia - "Red Mosque"

Comment: Catches the role of women during a fiery battle to defend the mosque. Having the fortune (or misfortune) to be inside, the reporter produced a captivating story and gave insight into the minds of those present. In contrast to the usual portrayals of the role of women in Muslim societies - which often stereotype Muslim women as 'victims,' - the story was a breath of fresh air. A story that offers a unique and courageous look inside a controversial mosque in the pitch of battle with authorities, giving insights not only about the conflict between radical religious members and the Pakistani government but also about the hearts and minds of the women sworn to die for their beliefs.

Award: The Wall Street Journal Asia - "China's Three Gorges Dam"

Comment: An important story that persuasively documented the heavy environmental and social costs of this massive infrastructure in China and prompted the Chinese government to action. Detailed on-the-ground reportage of a large-scale environmental problem, which revealed significant new facts and led to a swift and meaningful response by the Chinese government.