JOHOR BARU: The Star’s Johor bureau won big at the annual Johor Media awards when it bagged a total of four prizes including the coveted Mentri Besar’s Award.
Bureau Chief Nelson Benjamin bagged two awards for the Best Cultural Tourism Award for his article titled “More than a country” and for Best Economic News with his article “Foreign traders disrupt business run by locals”.
Journalist Mohd Farhaan Shah won for the Best Sports News with his article “Nurse who packs a punch” while Zazali Musa took home the Mentri Besar's award which came with cash prize of RM3,000.
All the other winners walked away with cash prize of RM2,000 for each category together with a certificate and trophy.
Benjamin said that he was proud of the team’s success for the seventh consecutive year and attributed their win to the commitment and teamwork.
“This year all our journalists and our photographer were all nominated a total of 22 times in five categories including for environmental photography and for the English print media categories.
“This is a testimony of the team’s hard work in producing good and relevant news reports,” he added.
In his speech, Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Osman Sapian said a total of 232 entries were received for 34 categories, which were judged by a panel from the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI).
He said the annual event was held to recognise the contribution of the media outlets in the state.
He added that media played an important role in social and national development by being opinion leaders.
“When the new Pakatan Harapan government promised a free media, the freedom comes with an obligation to be fair with every report published,” he said, adding that media organisations should not resort to publishing misleading or unverified news just to increase readership.
Besides the state government, there were also 15 other corporate sponsors for the event.
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