Kenyalang Press Awards: Prize money up to RM175,000, rebranding — Organiser

KUCHING: A total of RM175,000 in prize money will be up for grabs in the Kenyalang Press Awards 2016, an increase from the total RM98,000 presented in the 2015 edition.

The organising chairperson Jacqueline Radoi David said the increase in prize money is made possible due to the strong support of the state government, Sarawak Energy Berhad, Sarawak Shell and other major sponsors towards the KPA.

“As a result of their support and commitment, we are able to increase the quantum of the winning prizes for all the categories of the KPA,” Jacqueline, who is also Federation of Sarawak Journalists Associations ( FSJA) president, said in a statement yesterday.

The KPA is divided into the Chief Minister’s Awards, Sustainability Reporting Awards, News Reporting Awards, Business and Economic News Reporting Awards, Community Well-Being and Rural Journalism Awards, Sports News Awards, Photo- Journalism Awards and Best Picture Award.

Jacqueline said the Chief Minister’s Awards will be the highlight of the KPA to be the presented to the winning entries from the English, Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese language sections as well as from entries from the television stations.

“The winners for the Chief Minister’s Awards are selected from among the winners of other categories of KPA, excluding the Photo- Journalism Awards and Best Picture Award,” she explained.

The Chief Minister’s Awards, formerly known as Journalism Awards, offer a prize money of RM5,000 for each of the best winning entries from English, Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese language sections as well as from local television stations.

Cash prizes for other categories are RM3,000 for the first-placed winner, RM2,000 for the secondplaced winner and RM1,000 for third position.

Jacqueline said the cash prizes for Photo- Journalism Awards are RM2,500 to the firstplaced winner and RM1,500 and RM800 for the second and third winners.

She said this category is only open to press photographers.

Jacqueline said the organising committee has decided to include a new category – the Best Picture Award – open to both press photographers and journalists.

“We have decided to award RM2,000 for the best picture,” she said, reminding that entries submitted for the PhotoJournalism Awards are not eligible for the Best Picture Award.

Jacqueline said that the organising committee has decided to give prizes to first, second and third winners of all the categories, instead of just one prize for the top winners in each of the categories was the case for last year’s KPA.

“It is only fair that we give the prizes to the top three winners of each category to appreciate the hard work of the reporters,” she said.

On Sustainability Reporting Awards, Jacqueline said it is a rebranding of the Environmental Reporting Awards Category.

“The organising committee feels that this category needs to be rebranded and expanded to cover many areas, including environment, forestation, renewable resources, social investment and other development initiatives for a sustainable future of the state,” she said, explaining that the key theme for the rebranded category is sustainability.

“Any submission, whether features or plain news, that touches on sustainability comes under this category,” she said.

Jacqueline said the organising committee has decided to abolish the Health Reporting Awards category.

“Instead, we have merged this category with the Rural Development Reporting Awards category,” she said, adding that with the merger, the category is now known as Community Well- Being and Rural Development Journalism Awards.

Jacqueline said any entry that touches on community wellbeing, rural development and any economic activities that help to improve the livelihood of the local communities, especially the low income group comes under the Community Well-Being and Rural Development Journalism Awards category.

The organising committee has also decided to open participation from online news portals for the KPA.

“Reporters or photographers from online news portals and who are based or residing in Sarawak can submit their entries for all the categories,” she said, explaining that such entries must be on published works about or on Sarawak only.

She said winning entries from online news portal are eligible to receive the CM’s Awards.

Jacqueline explained the organising committee will be selective in accepting entries from online news portals.

“Once we have made the decision, it is final and no queries from whomsoever will be entertained by the organising committee,” she said.

Jacqueline also reminded that the organising committee only accepts all works published from Jan 1, 2015 to Dec 31, 2015 as eligible for the KPA.

The rules and regulations and entry forms can be obtained from members of the organising committee or from WhatsApp chat group or through fax, from this coming Monday.

All entries, together with the duly certified entry forms, must reach: The Secretariat, Kenyalang Press Awards 2016, c/o Angkatan Zaman Mansang (Azam Sarawak), Jalan Crookshank, 93000, Kuching, Sarawak.

For details, call 082- 411799 or fax to 082-258372 or email to admin@ azam.org.my

Entries should be submitted before 4pm on or before Aug 31, 2016. Entries received after that date will not be entertained.