Big win for The Star at Media Awards

Dressed for success: (From left to right) The Star journalists Yee, Norbaiti Phaharoradzi, Benjamin, Kili and Lim all smiles after their win at the fourth Johor Media Awards 2014 in Johor Baru.

JOHOR BARU: The Star Johor bureau emerged the biggest winner at the fourth Johor Media Awards 2014, bagging four awards.

Bureau chief Nelson Benjamin led the group by accepting the award for Best Feature Article in the English media category for his story on the plight of migrant workers.

He received the award from Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

Journalists Yee Xiang Yun won the prize for Best Tourism and Culture News for her article titled “Tourism Boom Hits Johor”.

Kathleen Ann Kili took home the Best Sports News with her “Slam Dunking To The Finale” article.

The Star photographer Lim Cheng Kiat managed to beat two competitors from Chinese dailies by winning the Best News Photography prize.

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

“The victories are the fruits of strong teamwork, in constantly keeping our ears to the ground to produce relevant news reports,” Benjamin said, adding that it was a huge achievement for everyone in the bureau to have their articles nominated 12 times for seven categories.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the Johor bureau hasclinched most of the awards in the English media category.

A record 313 entries were received this time, compared to 295 for 32 awards in various categories the last round.

In his speech, Mohamed Khaled said the awards were an appreciation of the media fraternity’s hard work.

“There may be a lot of grassroots reporters and citizen journalists but the public will always turn to mainstream media for credible news,” he said.

Mohamed also said the state government would support and assist media practitioners from Johor who planned to further their studies in journalism and take up media courses.