25th Human Rights Press Awards: Call for Nominations

Deadline: 1-Feb-21

Nominations are now open for the 25th Human Rights Press Awards to recognise top rights-related reporting from around Asia, with the goal of increasing respect for people’s basic rights and focusing attention on threats to those freedoms.

The awards, which are now in their 25th year, are organised by The Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong, Amnesty International and the Hong Kong Journalists Association.

Categories

• Breaking News Writing (English, Chinese): Recognising work reported under deadline pressure with speed, accuracy and high-quality writing on a single human rights-related news event.
• Investigative Feature Writing (English, Chinese): Recognising investigative work that makes use of all journalistic tools to uncover or expose new details of a significant human rights issue.
• Explanatory Feature Writing (English, Chinese): Recognising feature writing that provides detailed insight, analysis and comprehension to explain a significant human rights issue.
• Commentary Writing (English, Chinese): Recognising opinion writing that demonstrates well-reasoned, authoritative and persuasive argument on a topic of human rights significance.
• Photography (Single image): Recognising a single image that demonstrates excellence in photography on a human rights issue.
• Photography (Series): Recognising a series of images demonstrating excellence in photography on a single, specific human rights issue.
• Short Video (English, Chinese): Recognising compelling and shareable video reporting on a human rights issue, as originally published with duration of less than twelve minutes.
• Documentary Video (English, Chinese): Recognising excellent in-depth video reporting on an issue of human rights significance, as originally published with duration exceeding twelve minutes.
• Audio (English, Chinese): Recognising radio, podcast or other audio reporting with excellence on an issue of human rights interest.
• Multimedia (English, Chinese): Recognising innovative, multi-format reporting on a human rights issue which makes use of two or more of the following mediums: text, photo essay, video, audio/podcast, infographic and/or interactive elements.
• Tertiary Student Writing (English, Chinese): Recognising excellence in written reporting by a student in tertiary education on an issue of human rights significance.
• Tertiary Student Video & Audio (English, Chinese): Recognising excellence in video and/or audio reporting by a student in tertiary education on an issue of human rights significance.
• People’s Choice Photo Award: A public voting photography award. Judges will select up to 10 images from submissions to photography categories, with the winner to be chosen by public poll.

Eligibility Criteria

Works must be:

• In English or Chinese;
• Reported by professional journalists (except student categories), including freelancers, excluding corporations or activist groups;
• Published or broadcast during the past calendar year, January 1 to December 31, 2020 on a professional media platform (except students);
• Reported about the Asia region, including Central Asia, excluding Middle East, Australia, New Zealand;
• Related to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Each entry must cite the specific article that the work seeks to address;
• They receive hundreds of submissions every year, in English and Chinese, from across Asia.

Each year, the Human Rights Press Awards invites prominent figures in the fields of media, law, academia, and human rights volunteers to read and watch more than 400 entries, from both professional and students, as part of its judging panels.

Allan Au Ka-lun: He is a columnist for Mingpao and Professional Consultant at the School of Journalism & Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was a Knight Fellow at Stanford University, as well as a former producer, editor, and host at TVB News.

Au Mei Po: She is an activist. She has been campaigning for gender equality and defending labour rights and human rights locally and internationally in the last two decades. She was the director of Amnesty International Hong Kong between 2011 and 2018. During her terms, she initiated Adhere to Righteousness — 20 Years of Human Rights Press Awards, a book project on the 20th anniversary of Human Rights Press Awards.

Bettina Wassener: Bettina Wassener spent 20 years working as a business and economics correspondent, for the Financial Times and the New York Times/International Herald Tribune among others. Based in Hong Kong since 2008, she now works in corporate PR.

Chong Yiu-kwongChong: Yiu-kwong is a solicitor and a senior lecturer at the Department of Education Policy and Leadership of The Education University of Hong Kong.

Divya Gopalan: She is a Hong Kong-based journalist with more than 20 years of experience in international news. She has worked, and continues to work, as a news anchor in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, having been deployed in 17 different countries. A seasoned professional, Divya understands all aspects of broadcast journalism, both in front and behind the cameras. She also contributes to online news outlets for breaking news and feature reports.

Douglas Wong: He is an editor at Bloomberg Intelligence and was previously a journalist at Bloomberg News, the Financial Times and The Straits Times. A former FCC president and treasurer, he has been an HRPA judge since 2012.

For more information, visit https://humanrightspressawards.org/how-to-enter