HONG KONG, May 12, 2018 — The Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong, Amnesty International and the Hong Kong Journalists Association are proud to present the winners of the 2018 Human Rights Press Awards (see Annex), an annual recognition of outstanding journalism in the area of human rights across Asia.
Now in its 22nd year, the Human Rights Press Awards was the first honour of its kind in Asia and remains among the region’s most prestigious professional accolades, celebrating journalism that raises awareness about human rights and highlights threats to freedom. This work is more important than ever as basic freedoms such as movement and expression steadily decline.
Amid various rights crises gripping the region — from the violent persecution of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority, to the rise of religious intolerance among youths in Pakistan and greater South Asia, to the growing reach of Chinese government surveillance — 2018 saw a record 414 entries in both English and Chinese languages, up 28% from last year.
“We are pleased to see that many journalists are working so hard to give a voice to the vulnerable,” said Allan Au, a Hong Kong-based columnist and academic. Au was among more than 20 experts in journalism, law and human rights who judged entries in 17 categories including spot news, features and commentary in text, video, radio and photographic mediums.
The organising committee welcomes keynote speaker Sonny Swe, publisher of the Yangon-based weekly magazine Frontier Myanmar, who spoke to the challenges and importance of reporting on human rights in Asia. As the co-founder of the Myanmar Times, the country’s only private English-language daily, Sonny was at the vanguard of Myanmar journalism under a repressive military regime, later spending more than eight years as a political prisoner.
“Our fight for freedom of press has always been an uphill battle, and it will continue to be an uphill battle,” Sonny said during an award presentation ceremony at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong on May 12. “Freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom of expression. I will always fight for them because I know – first-hand – how it feels to have your freedom forcibly taken away from you.”
Agence France-Presse, the BBC and the New York Times were recognised for reporting on the Rohingya, a mostly stateless minority subjected to what the U.N. calls a campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar military. Standout winners also came from as far afield as Xinjiang, China, where the Wall Street Journal exposed invasive security measures targeting the Uighur Muslim minority and possibly intended for nationwide rollout.
“What’s unfolding in Xinjiang matters not just for China, but for the rest of the world because it provides a potential model for governments in how to use technology to tighten their grip on society,” said Clément Bürge, a video journalist for the Journal whose report with colleagues Josh Chin and Giulia Marchi, “Twelve Days in Xinjiang: How China’s surveillance state overwhelms daily life,” won the English-language award for multimedia.
Other notable works were reported here in Hong Kong by Chinese-language outlets including RTHK and Citizen News, elevating underrepresented voices and exploring issues of religious freedom, civil disobedience and more. A total of 238 entries were submitted in Chinese languages, far more than previous years, and included winning works by students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Journalism and Communication.
Ming Pao Weekly’s impressive effort to expose the Hong Kong government’s refugee screening processes won the feature award. The project was “the result of countless 15-minute interviews with refugees in custody,” journalist Cheng Tsz Yu recalled. “I dared not visit them after publication because there is so little I can do to change their fate. ”
Initium Media was recognised for bringing to light a farewell letter from Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobao to his wife, Liu Xia, penned from his deathbed while he was still in Chinese government custody. One judge commended the “rare and moving piece” for emphasizing “the right to freedom and family life by showing how deep and noble a loving relationship is, and by implication, the iniquity of interfering with it.”
Annie Zhang, of Initium, said her intention was to “let the public see and remember Liu Xiaobao, not as a body that gradually lost its life as shown in the government broadcast, or a faceless symbol in Chinese history; but as a human being with dignity, beauty and love.”
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2018年人權新聞獎得獎名單 2018 HUMAN RIGHTS PRESS AWARDS WINNERS
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Text & Print – Spot News (English)
Winner
Unwanted in Myanmar, unwelcome in Bangladesh
Sam Jahan, Nick Perry, Redwan Ahmed and Claire Cozens of AFP
Merit
Chinese billionaire abducted from Hong Kong
Ben Bland, Jamil Anderlini, Gloria Cheung and Lucy Hornby of Financial Times
Blood flowed in the streets: Refugees from one Rohingya hamlet recount days of horror
&
Everyone has parents but us
Annie Gowen of The Washington Post
Text & Print – Features (English)
Winner
This is what a 21st century surveillance state looks like
Megha Rajagopalan of BuzzFeed News
Merit
China’s Uighurs
Gerry Shih of The Associated Press
Myanmar’s army is tormenting Muslims with a brutal rape campaign
Patrick Winn and Muktadir Rashid of Public Radio International
Text & Print – Commentary (English)
Winner
Cambodia’s Crackdown: What happens when an autocrat shutters a newspaper
Julia Wallace of The Nation
Merit
A deepening crisis
The value of a life
&
Repatriation not enough
Oliver Slow and Thomas Kean of Frontier Myanmar
Thailand’s monarchy: where does love end and dread begin?
Michael Peel of Financial Times
Multimedia (English)
Winner
Twelve Days in Xinjiang: How China’s surveillance state overwhelms daily life
Josh Chin, Clément Bürge and Giulia Marchi of The Wall Street Journal
Merit
Confiscation crusaders try to save Philippine paradise
Karl Malakunas of AFP
Television & Video (English)
Winner
Murder on campus
Secunder Kermani of BBC News, “Our World”
Merit
101 East: The Rohingya exodus
Drew Ambrose of Al Jazeera English
The Kill List
Aurora Almendral and Ed Ou of NBC Left Field
Radio & Audio (English)
Winner
How the United Nations in Myanmar failed the Rohingya
Jonah Fisher of BBC News
Text & Print – Spot News (Chinese)
Winner
Exclusive: Liu Xiaobo’s final gift to wife Liu Xia – his last manuscript fully revealed
Annie Zhang of Initium Media
Merit
[HK01 survey] Scholars shocked to find 33% primary school SEN students victims of bullying
Liu Kit Yin of HK01
Li Wangling speaks out five years after activist Li Wangyang’s death
Lin Ying of Ming Pao
Text & Print – Features (Chinese)
Winner
The invisible wall: Hong Kong’s refugees
Cheng Tsz Yu of Ming Pao Weekly
Merit
Lamentations of the homeless: The people without a place to be
Kim Chan Ping Ting of The News Lens
Covered wounds: Youth face sexual abuse in resettlement homes
Chien Yung Ta of The Reporter
Text & Print – Commentary (Chinese)
Winner
In the name of national security
To Yiu Ming of Ming Pao
Merit
European Journalist of the Year Can Dündar: A lifelong pursuit for truth
Chinghua Tsai of Opinions@CommonWealth
Joint checkpoints: How they are done under British and French law
Alvin Lum of CitizenNews
Multimedia (Chinese)
Winner
Legal Records of Civil Disobedience
Ng Yuen Ying of CitizenNews
Merit
Data visualized: The impact of Beijing’s eviction of the ‘low-end population’
Danielle Wang, Victoria Jin and Xu Xiaotong of Initium Media
One year into the Philippines’ war on drugs
Gary Lo of HK01
Television & Video (Chinese)
Winner
Sunday Report: Liu Xiaobo
Choi Chin Hung, Kris, Chiu Chun Ting and Diana Lin of Television Broadcasts Limited
Merit
The Redress
Wong Wai Yu, Jovy of Hong Kong i-CABLE News, China Desk
The investment of sweat and blood
Cheng Sze Sze of Hong Kong Connection, RTHK
Radio & Audio (Chinese)
Winner
Mainland to tighten grip on protestant churches
Emily Chan Miu Ling of RTHK
Merit
Keeping the faith – Xu Zhiyong’s first interview after his release from prison
Lam Hon Shan of RTHK
“Miss You”— the second anniversary of the 709 incident
Lam Hon Shan of RTHK
Photography – Spot News
Winner
Staring at Death
Indranil Mukherjee of AFP
Merit
Inside and outside the police car
Kyle Lam of HK01
Photography – Features
Winner
Rohingya Crisis
Tomas Munita of The New York Times
Merit
Jade Mining in Myanmar
Adam Dean of TIME Magazine
Exchange health for economic miracle: Story of Samsung workers with cancer
Li Chak Tung of HK01
People’s Choice Photo Award
Winner
Unwanted in Myanmar, unwelcome in Bangladesh
Fred Dufour of AFP
Tertiary – Text (Chinese)
Winner
Elegy of the iPhone: Unions and management conspire against workers
He Ji Shu, Ko Chung Lai and Lo Wai Ting of U-Beat Magazine, CUHK
Merit
28th Anniversary series for the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre
Chong Hiu Tung of CitizenNews
Popularising teaching in sign language: Let deaf students understand
Mok Wing Tung and Lui Wing Yiu of U-Beat Magazine, CUHK
Tertiary – Radio, Television & Video (Chinese)
Winner
Students stand in solidarity with the workers
Lam Sum Yi, Hui Lee Ha, Chan Tsz Ki and Liu Dicksa Isabelle of U-Beat Magazine, CUHK
Merit
Growing up with homosexual parents
LEE Tsz Ying and Lau Tsz Lam of Broadcast News Network, HKBU
The plight of the cleaners
Chan On Ki, Lam Oi Yee, Leung Yuk Man, Mak Tsun Ho and Mok Wing Tung of U-Beat Magazine, CUHK
Tertiary – Text (English)
Merit
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Fiona Chan, Angela Siu, Kristy Tong, Doris Yu, Crystal Wu, Elaine Ng, Marilyn Ma, Grace Liyang and Chloe Kwan of Varsity, CUHK