China Daily HK wins record 14 prizes
Paper is biggest winner this year, earning awards in an astonishing 11 categories
China Daily Hong Kong Edition secured a record 14 prizes in a total of 11 categories at the city’s annual news award competition presented by the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong — including a first-time winner for Best Young Reporter.
This impressive result had made China Daily Hong Kong the biggest winner in the overall awards tally among the 12 newspaper outlets which participated in the competition. China Daily Hong Kong was ranked second in terms of the number of top awards. The awards were chosen among 594 entries from most Chinese and English newspapers in the city.
Since 2003, China Daily has, in total, earned 72 prizes in the Hong Kong News Awards, making it a constant winner in the city’s annual prestigious news awards.
The awards won by China Daily Hong Kong spanned 11 different categories — the highest ever — including four top awards for Best Headline, Best Science News Reporting, Best Arts and Culture News Reporting and Best Young Reporter.
This is also the second time China Daily Hong Kong won four top awards — a record set last year.
The breakthrough in Best Young Reporter was made by Dara Wang, 24, who managed to scoop first prize for Best Young Reporter. It is also her first award since entering the news industry.
Many of this year’s winners at China Daily Hong Kong also won awards last year. Veteran editor Robert Ireland excelled by clinching his ninth award for Best Headline (English). This year, he claimed first place in the section with the headline “Misguided tours”, a story centered on exposing problems aroused by cut-rate tour operators in the city.
For a consecutive year, Chitralekha Basu, deputy news editor (Arts and Culture) at China Daily Hong Kong, swept first prize in the Best Arts and Culture News Reporting. The fivepart Design Network series explores how Hong Kong could re-establish itself as one of the premier design destinations in the world and how the city’s evolving design industry is preparing to cope with the coming Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Honey Tsang, a reporter with the news desk, won the top prize in the Best Science News Reporting category with her Global Warning series which discussed how global warming is harming our health while also damaging the planet.
Reporter Wang Yuke won two second runner-up awards in Best Arts and Culture News Reporting with her series on the life of ethnic minorities and in Best News Writing (English), with her article on efforts by former prison inmates to rejoin society.
Veteran photographer Roy Liu scored a hat-trick for a consecutive year by winning three awards in all three photo categories. He won a first runner-up in Best Photography (Sports), first merit in Best Photography (Features) and second merit in Best Photography (News).
Another veteran winner of the award was a pair of graphic designers Billy Wong and Mok Kwok-cheong, who were awarded a first runner-up in the Best News Page Design (Series) category for their Design Network pages.
China Daily Hong Kong’s business team also won three news awards this year — one more than last year; they were also last year’s winners. Zhou Mo won a first runnerup in Business News Writing (English), and Luo Weiteng and Chai Hua were jointly awarded a second runner-up in Business News Reporting for their combined series on retail revolution this year.
Experienced business reporter Oswald Chan won the second merit prize in the Best Business News Reporting category. His Smart City series reported on steps the SAR government is taking to promote smart city development.