CHINESE MEDIA REVOKES ENTRIES FROM SOUTH ASIAN JOURNALISM AWARDS

This move is being initiated by the Chinese media organisation due to rising domestic pressure on those seen to be cooperating with foreign entities.

- 

A Chinese media organisation, Caixin Media, is distancing itself from participating in Asia’s high-profile journalism award, Nikkei Asia reported.

According to the same news report, this move is being initiated by the Chinese media organisation due to rising domestic pressure on those seen to be cooperating with foreign entities.

While quoting senior members Nikkei Asia report mentioned that Caixin Media, which won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards for five straight years from 2014 to 2018, has stopped submitting entries in recent years “for obvious reasons,” two senior staff members at the company told. “We cannot submit, even if we get invitations from overseas organizations, we just cannot participate,” said one of them.

SOPA was founded in Hong Kong as a not-forprofit organisation in 1982, aiming to champion the best journalism practices in the Asia-Pacific region. Its members include Bloomberg, The New York Times, and several Taiwanese media outlets. State media China Daily used to be a member too.

Similarly, Shanghai-based Sixth Tone, launched by The Paper, a digital news outlet run by the state-owned Shanghai United Media Group in 2016, also did not submit any entries this year.