Malaysiakini bags two journalism awards

Malaysiakini has won two awards for this year’s annual Malaysian Press Institute-Petronas Journalism Awards for its reporting in 2019.

The news portal was named the winner for the newly created ‘Best Multimedia Journalism’ category, which came with a RM10,000 prize, trophy, and a certificate.

This was for Malaysiakini’s interactive features regarding industrial pollution at Sungai Kim Kim, the 50th anniversary of the riots of May 13, 1969, and the Budget 2020 announcement.

"The jury panel unanimously agree that in terms of multimedia presentation, it clearly follows current developments in digital journalism," the emcee announced at an awards ceremony at the Majestic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur today.

All three reporting projects were part of the news portal’s Kini News Lab initiative established in 2018.

Altogether, the three projects had involved the work of at least 16 journalists, photographers, videographers, web developers, and other staff.

“Malaysiakini has put in a lot of effort into training our team members so that we are able to tell our stories in more compelling and innovative ways," said Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan.

“It's great to see that we are on the right path and I hope to see better multimedia storytelling involving text, photographs, graphics, video and audio clips in years to come."

Meanwhile, Malaysiakini also won a consolation prize in the ‘Investigative Reporting Excellence Award’ for its ‘Trapped and Traded’ series on the abuse and labour exploitation of migrant workers from Bangladesh.

The four-part series and photo essay were the results of cross-border collaboration between Malaysiakini and Bangladesh media outlet Kaler Kantho.

Following the publication of the series in September last year, authorities had moved to raid a printing factory in Kapar, Klang, for alleged offences under the Employment Act 1955.

The consolation prize came with a RM1,000 prize and a certificate.

The winner for the category was The Star for its reporting on the drug trade in Malaysia.

Altogether, there were 17 categories in this year’s MPI-Petronas Journalism Award.

The ceremony was originally slated to be held in April, but was postponed due to the movement control order to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Previously, it was reported that the MPI had received 522 submissions for this year’s awards, involving 306 participants from 32 media companies.