SOPA Announces 2019 Journalism Awards Finalists

Financial Times,Reuters and the Associated Press compete for Scoop Award;

Winners to be announced at SOPA Awards Gala Dinner on May 29,tickets on sale

HONG KONG,May 3,2019 -- The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA),a Hong Kong-based not-for-profit organization,today announced the finalists (full list here) for the SOPA 2019 Awards for Editorial Excellence after receiving more than 800 English and Chinese-language entries submitted by international,regional and local media across the region.

For the second year running,SOPA award entries exceeded the eight hundred mark,underscoring the widespread recognition for these prestigious Asia Pacific publishing industry awards.

Participating media competed in 17 categories,including SOPA awards for Public Service Journalism,Excellence in Business Reporting and best Scoop. In the Scoop Award category for international media,the Financial Times,Reuters and the Associated Press are named as finalists for breaking agenda-setting stories on the Uighur crackdown in Xinjiang,the massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar,and the first gene-edited baby respectively.

The winners will be named at the SOPA Awards Gala Dinnerto be held on May 29 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

"The Awards showcase the ability of journalists in the region to expose important issues and hold governments to account. The finalists have covered social and humanitarian issues as well as the ethics of science and technology.Their work speaks to the importance of high quality journalism at a time when press freedom is becoming ever more precious," said Cliff Buddle,Editor,Special Projects,at the South China Morning Post and Chair of the SOPA Editorial Committee.

Dr. Jeffrey Timmermans,Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong's Journalism & Media Studies Centre and 2019 SOPA Head of Judges said the Awards honour the courage shown by journalists. He said:"The finalists in this year's SOPA Awards demonstrate the awesome power of journalism to reveal secrets that governments would rather remain hidden. But revelation is only the first step towards resolution,and this year's finalists show also the limitations of journalism's power,with Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo remaining in a Myanmar prison for their work in exposing the massacre of Rohingya Muslims,a crime for which the Myanmar government has yet to be held accountable."

The SOPA 2019 Awards for Editorial Excellence are supported by Facebook and Google (as Platinum Sponsors) and ZA International (as Silver Sponsor). FleishmanHillard,PR Newswire and High Technology Printing Group provide SOPA with support respectively on public relations,newswire and printing services.

Tickets for the dinner are now available at http://www.sopawards.com. For corporate tables of 12 seats,bookings should be made through the SOPA Secretariat (contact information below).

About SOPA

The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) was founded in 1982 to champion freedom of the press,promote excellence in journalism and endorse best practices for all local and regional publishing platforms in the Asia-Pacific region. SOPA is a not-for-profit organization based in Hong Kong and representing international,regional and local media companies across Asia. The Society of Publishers in Asia is also host to the prestigious annual SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence,which serve as the world-class benchmark for quality journalism in the region. www.sopasia.com; www.sopawards.com; SOPA LinkedIn.

Press release prepared on behalf of SOPA by FleishmanHillard and distributed by PR Newswire.

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