The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA), an organization dedicated to best practices in professional publishing, has announced the call for entries for the SOPA 2016 Awards for Editorial Excellence. Entering its 18th year, the premier publishing awards represent the most outstanding journalistic accolade in Asia Pacific. The deadline for entries is 25 February 2016.
The judging criteria for the award category Journalist of the Year will remain the same as last year, in which entries from Group A, B and C will be combined for judging resulting in only one winner. Journalist of the Year award is designed to honour the journalist who has best demonstrated excellence in editorial achievement. For the purposes of the awards, Asia Pacific is defined to include the region of Afghanistan and the Central Asia republics, in addition to the Indian subcontinent, North and East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands.
“The SOPA Awards is the best forum to celebrate best reporting, writing, photographic and graphic design in publishing in Asia Pacific to gain attention,” said Tom Leander, chairman of the SOPA Editorial Awards Committee. The SOPA Awards highlight editorial excellence in both traditional and new media as well as emphasize the importance of freedom of the press. The awards are designed to honour and encourage editorial vitality and innovation throughout the region, and welcome entries from English and Chineselanguage publications for Asian journalism. The SOPA Awards’ judging panel includes journalists, designers and photo editors from the region’s leading newspapers, consumer and trade magazines, as well as notable academics from the journalism and media departments of prestigious universities.
Judging for the 2016 Awards will be conducted by a team of more than 100 international judges stationed across the globe. The Journalism & Media Studies Centre at The University of Hong Kong has been the Awards Administrator since 2011. SOPA has started accepting entries. To encourage various entries from both large and small publications, entries are classified by circulation size and language type – either English or Chinese.
