Singapore Press Holdings (Singapore), the New Straits Times (Malaysia) and the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) were among the top winners of the annual Asian Media Awards (AMA) presented on 30 March in a gala ceremony in Manila by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (Wan-Ifra).
While The Star (Malaysia), Jawa Pos (Indonesia), Gulf News (UAE) and Muscat Press (Oman) also clinched several trophies, this year’s awards were marked by the achievements of first-time winners from Myanmar (The Myanmar Times), Pakistan (The Dawn and Jang) and South Korea (Kaya Media).
The best in newspaper front page design was awarded to a gripping cover on the smoke haze contamination from open burning in Sumatra and Kalimantan by Republika (Indonesia).
In their 15th edition, Wan-Ifra’s annual Asian Media Awards drew 462 entries from 19 countries in Asia and the Middle East, competing for excellence in printing quality, design, infographics, photography, editorial content, newspaper marketing and community service. This year the Best in Print Awards were a part of the International Newspaper Colour Quality Club competition and were sponsored by manroland web systems for the 15th consecutive year.
No less than 20 judges from international media companies evaluated the AMA entries in the past months in order to select the 39 awards winners who were honoured at Publish Asia’s gala dinner on 30 March. Judges included notably the World Press Photo Award winners Bill Frakes and Ian Grarup, former National Geographic art director Juan Velasco, the Evening Standard’s managing editor, Doug Wills and The Age’s editor-in-chief, Andrew Holden. Publish Asia 2016, which was inaugurated on 30 March by Benigno Aquino III, president of the Philippines, brought together 300 media executives from 24 countries, representing more than 80 leading Asian news media companies.
