2010 Award Winners
Group BEnglish-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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