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10 October 2012JMSC Designated Administrator of SOPA Awards for Third Year Running
The JMSC has been designated the administrator of the Society of Publishers in Asia Awards for the third year in a row.
As awards’ administrator, the JMSC’s duties include finalising the rules and entry requirements, establishing judging panels, managing hundreds of entries from all over Asia, and collecting and tabulating results.
This year, JMSC Honorary Lecturer and Teaching Consultant, Jeff Timmermans, has joined as a member of the SOPA Awards Committee, which organises the annual awards. It’s the first time that the JMSC has had a representative member on that committee. In the past faculty members have served as Head of Judges.
The awards typically attract close to 600 entries from all over Asia. They are judged by more than 110 judges, who are academics and professional journalists from all over the world.
“The mission of the JMSC is to pursue excellence in journalism and foster Asian voices in the international media,” said Professor Ying Chan, Director of the JMSC. “This aligns with the mission of SOPA and the search for editorial excellence of the SOPA Awards.”
SOPA is dedicated to “preserving freedom of the press in the Asian region and to ensuring that independent, quality journalism is observed, encouraged and acknowledged.”
SOPA’s Awards for Editorial Excellence recognise a range of skills in 17 categories of awards, including Excellence in Investigative Reporting, Reporting Breaking News, Business Reporting, Human Rights Reporting, Reporting on the Environment, Feature Writing and Opinion Writing.
Prizes are also awarded for News Photography, Feature Photography, Special Coverage, Editorial Cartooning, Information Graphics, Newspaper Design, Magazine Design, Multimedia News Presentation, The Scoop Award, and Journalist of the Year.
The Awards Ceremony will be held in early June, 2013 in Hong Kong. This year’s Head of Judges is Dr. Judith Clarke, Associate Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University’s Department of Journalism.