Malaysiakini's GE15 special project gets Sopa honourable mention
The award was for Kini News Lab’s 15th general election (GE15) special project.
The project used data and graphics to...
Malaysiakini was awarded an honourable mention for excellence in journalistic innovation at the annual Society of Publishers in Asia (Sopa) Awards, now in its 25th year.
The award was for Kini News Lab’s 15th general election (GE15) special project.
The winning package also included the special reports 'Undi18 and AVR: How do these affect your vote value?' and 'Understanding the power of young voters'.
The projects used data and graphics to teach voters everything they needed to know about the election, including a guide for first-time voters, a recap of what happened since the Sheraton Move, and a comparison of each coalition’s manifesto.
The GE15 results were also included on the page and were presented live during the tallying process on polling night.
“This project deftly uses data and graphics to illustrate how broken Malaysia’s election system is and how important a role data journalism could play in explaining a national election,” the Sopa Awards judges said.
Kini News Lab is a unit within Malaysiakini’s newsroom that specializes in data journalism and innovative storytelling.
China-based online magazine Sixth Tone bagged the top prize for its piece on the Covid-19 pandemic, titled “Memory Project: The Shanghai Lockdown”.
The project mixed videos, photos, and social media storytelling to narrate the experience of those affected by the coronavirus lockdown.
India-based website The Quint’s “Islamophobia 365: Lynchings and Beyond” was another finalist in the category. The interactive piece documented hate speech and hate crimes arising from Islamophobia in the country’s Uttar Pradesh region.
The award ceremony took place at the JW Marriot in Hong Kong, last night.
READ MORE: Malaysiakini, Kini News Lab bag awards at Malaysian Press Institute-Petronas Journalism ceremony
Sopa was founded in Hong Kong in 1982 to encourage best practices in the publishing industry, set a high bar for journalistic standards, and be a voice for press freedom and journalists’ rights in Asia Pacific.
The annual Sopa Awards for Editorial Excellence was established in 1999 to recognize and reward great journalism. The annual awards are highly coveted and have become a highlight of the regional media calendar.
Annually, more than 90 awards are given out each year in an array of categories, with Video Reporting and Journalistic Innovation being recent additions to the list.
