Five students from the Department of Media and Communication won the award for Best in News Video Reporting (Chinese) and the first runner-up award for Best in News Photography (Online Voting) at the 2015-16 Campus Newspaper Awards organised by China Daily Asia Pacific. The presentation ceremony was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, where Financial Secretary Mr John Tsang addressed the audience and presented the awards to the winners.

Entitled “Lost paradise of birds – Mai Po”, the winning entry reported on the harmful effects of illegal container storage and unauthorised waste dumping on the natural environment of Mai Po. The winning team comprised YIU Cheuk-hang, CHUN King-yu, MANHO Hoi-shan Chloris, KONG Chui-shan and HUI Tsz-ni, all of whom are enrolled on the BA Digital TV and Broadcasting programme.

It takes sweat, determination and hard work to realise one’s dream, as this group of young journalists discovered. Equipped with meagre amateur filming equipment, challenged by the bad weather under the amber rainstorm warning signal, and even chased by some angry unleashed dogs, at the end, they were the first to expose a number of cases of illegal waste dumping, and revealed that certain local landfill projects have been greatly endangering the ecology of the Mai Po Nature Reserve.

As well as winning the award for Best in News Video Reporting (Chinese), the group was the first runner-up in the Best in News Photography (Online Voting) category for a photograph of the nature reserve showing the unaltered and altered environment before and after the illegal dumping of waste.

Congratulations to the students on their well-deserved prizes!