Star Media Group takes home three gold and one silver at MPI Awards

The Star

The Star Media Group (SMG) has topped the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI)-PETRONAS Malaysian Journalism Awards (HKM) 2023, held on Friday (June 7).   Read more at https://tinyurl.com/mvf496m2  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 The Star Media Group has topped the Malaysian Press Institute.

00:04 Petronas Malaysian Journalism Awards 2023 held on Friday.

00:09 The annual journalism award night saw nominations from the country's media publications, television,

00:14 radio and online platforms.

00:17 Among the winners from SMG's publication, The Star, was Hassan Bahri who clinched the

00:22 Best Front Page Design Award for The Star Biz Page Ringgit in a Corner and took home

00:28 a RM10,000 cash prize.

00:31 Journalists Bhavani Mahalingam and Shalini Ravindran also secured a first place win

00:36 and a RM10,000 cash prize in the Best Environmental, Social and Governance ESG category for their

00:42 retention pond series.

00:43 We're very, very happy to receive this award.

00:46 It was a lot of hard work.

00:47 It took literally three months of research, going through piles of documents that were

00:54 sent to us by whistleblowers, talking about how development of a flood retention pond

01:00 was going to be sold to a developer.

01:02 And we managed to expose the story.

01:06 And the good news is the government cancelled the land deal.

01:08 However, recently there's some development and we need to continue to expose what's happening

01:15 out there with other similar flood retention ponds.

01:20 It's my first time winning, so I'm very glad, and especially as we won for this category.

01:25 And it just shows how much environmental issues affect a lot of us and we'll continue to highlight

01:31 them.

01:32 The first place in the Best News Report category went to journalists Fazlina Abdul Aziz and

01:37 Siti Fatima Zainal for their reports.

01:40 They also took home a RM10,000 cash prize and a trophy.

01:44 Fazlina dedicated the award to the voiceless children in the country.

01:49 We're actually happy.

01:50 Happy not because we won, we are happy that this issue is of importance and it got recognition

01:57 that it deserves.

01:58 And we worked really hard on it.

02:02 The most important thing is that STAR is also very passionate about this issue.

02:06 And we've not just written this issue now, we've been writing on it consistently and

02:11 we'll continue to write about it because the children need a voice and the STAR is a very

02:18 good platform for their voices to be heard.

02:20 I would also like to congratulate all our editors, all the team that have worked very,

02:28 very hard to make all the wins for the STAR tonight possible.

02:31 The Star Scholars of Malaysia series received second place in the Best Multimedia Journalism

02:36 category, earning the team a RM3,000 cash prize and a certificate.

02:41 Also present were Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Communications Minister

02:46 Fahmi Fazil.

02:47 In his speech, Anwar emphasised the government's commitment to maintaining press freedom, assuring

02:53 that no actions have been taken to control or limit journalists and media outlets in

02:57 expressing their views, criticism and commentary.

03:02 I want to assure that the spirit is still there, even though it has caused a little

03:08 bit of concern because our determination in addressing several issues related to safety,

03:21 understanding of chauvinism and racism, or the spread of religious excesses, but we cannot

03:31 use that issue that can divide and degrade us.

03:37 MPI President Datuk Yong Suhyong highlighted that 2023 saw the highest number of applications

03:43 since the award's inception in 1980, with a 21% increase to 488 applications across

03:50 23 categories compared to the previous year.

03:53 SMG Chief Content Officer Datin Paduka Esther Ang expressed immense pride in her team, affirming

03:59 that the STAR will continue to deliver and present important stories to the public.

04:03 "Go Jays!"

04:06 "Go Jays!"

04:08 "Go Jays!"

04:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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