KUALA LUMPUR: The New Straits Times Press (M) Berhad (NSTP) group bagged six awards at the MPI-Petronas Malaysian Journalism Awards 2017 tonight.
New Straits Times (NST) journalist Aliza Shah and NST Associate Editor, Current Affairs Farrah Naz Karim won in the Best Investigative Report category. They took home RM10,000 cash, a certificate and a trophy.
NST Associate Editor, Digital & Features Fauziah Ismail was named the Best Columnist. Fauziah took home RM10,000 cash, a certificate and a trophy.
Coming second in the Best Columnist category was NSTP Convergence Editor, Regions, Sofea Chok Suat Ling.
NST’s sister publication, Berita Harian (BH) also won two awards.
The A. Samad Ismail Young Journalist Award went to Mohd Zulkifli Zainuddin for his report titled – ‘Kelantan lubuk pil kuda’.
BH also bagged the top prize in the Excellent News Reporting category for journalist Mohd Abdul Illah Hafiz Abdul Aziz’s report on a foreign fishermen syndicate encroaching on Malaysian waters.
Another NST sister publication, Harian Metro, won the Best Infographic category. Graphic artists Nor Salim Mohamed Dawam and Mohd Azam Shah Yaacob took home RM10,000 cash, a certificate and a trophy.
Meanwhile, Media Prima Bhd’s TV9 station took the top prize in the Best News Video Category.
As for the prestigious Kajai Award, it went to The Star's R.AGE team for their report on undocumented trafficking victims. They took home a cash prize of RM30,000, certificate and trophy, as well as other prizes.
A total of eighty best works for 16 categories were shortlisted for the MPI awards.
The entries for the 2017 awards saw an overwhelming response with 349 entries from media practitioners compared to 216 entries in the 2016 edition.
The Feature Writing category received the highest entries at 46, compared to 22 in 2016.
Four other top categories were Photojournalism with 43 entries, Video Documentary (30), Outstanding Photo Essay (27) and News Video (25).
MPI also received four and three nominations for the Special Jury Award and National Journalism Laureate Award, respectively.
The top five works for each category will be in the running to win RM300,000 cash prize in total from Petronas, a major sponsor of the awards since 1994.
Winners for each category will receive a cash prize of RM10,000, certificates and trophies, while the runners-up and second runners-up will walk away with RM1,000 each and certificates.