The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA), a Hong Kong-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to pursuing excellence in journalism, today announced that the SOPA 2019 Awards for Editorial Excellence are now open for entries. The deadline for submissions is 3pm Hong Kong time on Thursday January 24, 2019.
Since their launch in 1999, the awards have become a world-class benchmark to recognize best practices in journalism in Asia Pacific, while driving journalistic innovation across international, regional and local media platforms in the region.
"The SOPA Awards provide a great platform to honor the best publishing practices in the region as the journalism landscape continues to evolve," said Cliff Buddle, Editor, Special Projects at the South China Morning Post and Chair of the SOPA Editorial Committee. "By recognizing the best practices, we hope to continue to drive related dialogue and inspire journalists to keep pursuing journalistic innovation and excellence of all kinds."
Last year, the 20th anniversary of the awards saw a record number of entries with more than 850 submitted. The finalists and winning entries covered a wide range of crucial issues facing the region. Thomson Reuters won the top honour -- the SOPA Award for Public Service Journalism -- for its reporting on the Rohingya crisis.
For the SOPA 2019 Awards, media will continue to compete in 17 categories (full list below) including the SOPA Award for Public Service Journalism, Excellence in Business Reporting and Excellence in Feature Writing. SOPA encourages entries from both large and small publications with entries classified by circulation and language type -- English or Chinese.
The judging panel comprises more than 100 industry professionals from some of the region's most influential media organizations and leading journalism schools, as well as past award winners. The Journalism & Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong has been the Awards Administrator since 2011.
For the awards, Asia Pacific is defined as Afghanistan and the Central Asia republics, the Indian subcontinent, North and East Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands.
Submissions can be made online at www.sopawards.com. The finalists will be announced in May 2019, with the winners named at the SOPA Awards Gala Dinner on May 29, 2019 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Award submission eligibility and application information is available at www.sopawards.com.
2019 Award Categories
Excellence in Reporting on Women's Issues
Excellence in Journalistic Innovation
Excellence in Video Reporting
Excellence in Human Rights Reporting
Excellence in Feature Writing
Excellence in Magazine Design
Excellence in Arts & Culture Reporting
Excellence in Explanatory Reporting
Excellence in Business Reporting
Excellence in Information Graphics
Excellence in Reporting Breaking News
Excellence in Opinion Writing
Excellence in Reporting on the Environment
Excellence in Photography
The Scoop Award
Excellence in Investigative Reporting
SOPA Award for Public Service Journalism
www.sopaasia.org