The Star's Johor bureau journalists bag awards again

(From right) Norbaiti, Mohd Farhaan, Benjamin, Zazali Musa, Kathleen, Yee Xiang Yun, Nabila Ahmad and Martine Hakim at the Johor Media Awards ceremony held at Thistle Hotel.

JOHOR BARU: The Star’s Johor bureau came up tops once again by bagging four prizes in five print categories at the fifth annual Johor Media Awards.

Bureau chief Nelson Benjamin clinched the Best Feature Article award in the English print media category for his story on the Sembrong Dam titled Dead Calm.

Journalist Mohd Farhaan Shah Nazaruddin took home the Cultural Tourism Award for his article titled Bringing shadow play to life and Norbaiti Phaharoradzi walked away with the Best Economic News for her story titled Containing travellers in a container hotel in Johor Baru.

Kathleen Ann Kili won the Best Development News award, which was presented by Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin, for her story on the thriving homestay business and mangrove national park in Kukup titled More to Kukup than its catch of the day.

The winners were each presented with RM2,000, a trophy and a certificate during the ceremony on Wednesday.

Benjamin said it was the fifth consecutive year that the Johor bureau had clinched most of the awards in the English media category.

He attributed it to the commitment and teamwork.

For the first time, they received a total of 14 nominations in seven categories in the print media and photography categories.

Mohamed Khaled said the awards were to show appreciation for the media practitioners' hard work.

“The basis of maintaining the quality of media reports is the commitment to being professional and professional reporting is analysing a situation rationally and soundly in order to produce reports that carry values and morals for the benefit of the readers," he said.