HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 12 December 2023 – The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in journalism, announced today that the SOPA 2024 Awards for Editorial Excellence are open for entries. The deadline for submissions is 3pm Hong Kong time on Thursday February 22nd, 2024.
The SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence celebrate the best journalism in Asia and set the regional standard for quality, professional reporting.
For the second year SOPA 2024 Awards will feature an “Excellence in Bahasa Indonesia News Reporting” award, honoring stories that set the domestic agenda in politics, business, or social/cultural affairs. A joint venture by Mongabay, BBC Indonesia and The Gecko Project, The promise was a lie: How Indonesian villagers lost their cut of the palm oil boom, won the top award in 2023.
There are several noteworthy updates to this year’s SOPA Awards. Among them, the length limit in the category of Excellence in Video Reporting has been extended from 15 minutes to 20 minutes. Also, the SOPA Award for Young Journalists will now recognize both an English-language and a Chinese-language journalist.
“The SOPA Awards are a celebration of excellence in journalism in the Asia Pacific region. These awards recognize outstanding journalism across all formats and demonstrate the diverse media space and unique stories being told in Asia,” SOPA Board Co-Chairs Danielle McGuigan from the Financial Times and Sunita Rajan of Bloomberg, said.
Editorial Committee Co-Chairs Yi-Shan Chen, Editor-in-Chief of CommonWealth Magazine, and Bill Ridgers, Asia Digital Editor of The Economist, echoed that message and added: “Since 1982, SOPA has honored the brave journalists that have told Asia’s story. That recognition is now more important than ever.”
The annual awards give smaller publications across the Asia Pacific region an opportunity to showcase their reporting on local grassroots issues as well as regional ones. In 2023, The World of Chinese received an award for excellence for a story on a brutal assault in Tangshan and how it highlighted the need for education on sexual consent in China. Myanmar Now, meanwhile, won an award for excellence for its fearless reporting on those standing up to the country’s vicious junta.
The Journalism and Media Studies Centre at The University of Hong Kong, known as JMSC, has administered the awards since 2011. The Head of Judges, Senior Lecturer Ting Shi, will work with a judges panel of industry professionals from the region’s most influential media organizations, leading journalism schools, and past award winners.
In 2023, more than 800 entries in English and Chinese were submitted and more than 100 awards were presented for outstanding journalism.
For a limited time, SOPA is offering a 40% discount on the SOPA membership fee as well as a similar discount on up to five award entries. For the SOPA membership discount code, please request via email to mail@sopasia.com no later than Thursday February 8th, 2024.
Details on submissions, eligibility requirements and application information can be found at www.sopawards.com. The finalists will be announced in May 2024, and the winners in June 2024.
2024 Award Categories
• Excellence in Reporting on Women’s Issues
• Excellence in Journalistic Innovation
• Excellence in Audio Reporting
• Excellence in Video Reporting
• Excellence in Human Rights Reporting
• Excellence in Feature Writing
• Excellence in Technology Reporting
• Excellence in Magazine Design
• Excellence in Arts and Culture Reporting
• Excellence in Bahasa Indonesia News Reporting
• Excellence in Explanatory Reporting
• Excellence in Business Reporting
• Excellence in Infographics
• Excellence in Reporting Breaking News
• Excellence in Opinion Writing
• Excellence in Reporting on the Environment
• Excellence in Photography
• The Scoop Award
• Carlos Tejada Award for Excellence in Investigative Reporting
• SOPA Award for Young Journalists
• SOPA Award for Public Service Journalism
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About SOPA
The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) is a Hong Kong-based not-for-profit organization that was founded in 1982 to champion freedom of the press, promote excellence in journalism and endorse best practices for publishers operating in the Asia Pacific region.
Today, SOPA is the voice of Asia’s media and publishing industry and continues to work to uphold media standards and freedoms while celebrating and supporting professional journalism and publishing. The SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence are the annual, flagship awards, serving as a regional benchmark for quality, professional journalism and have been given out for 25 consecutive years since 1999.
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