Best Malaysian online journalist(s) of the year award

Event: NPC-NAZA Awards Night 2011

Date:   July 4, 2011 

Venue: JW Mariott, Kuala Lumpur

OLD and NEW MEDIA, remembered and recognized. For the first time, online journalists will be officially recognized when the National Press Club, which is a group whose members are mainly MSM journalists, picks the year's best journalists next month.

Journalists with MalaysiaKini, Malaysian Insider, Sabah Kini, Agenda Daily, MyKMU, Free Malaysia Today, Perak Today, Nut Graph, etc qualify. Nominations close tomorrow. 

Nominations are for 4 categories awards:- 

1. Journalist of the Year (MSM)

2. Young Journalist of the Year (MSM) 

3. Online Journalist of the Year  (Alternative Media)

4. Blogger of the Year (Social Media)

During a press conference to announce the event this morning, I was asked what makes a winner. I said the judges will be looking at various merits but at the end of the day the journalist must have left a great impact on not only society but also on journalism itself, through his/her writing and deeds. Last year during the inaugural event, for example, P. Gunasegaram fo the Star and Zaini Hassan of Utusan Malaysia were Journalists of the Year award. Both are known to be "outspoken" in their writings; in fact, Guna had then just been ticked off by the KDN for his column and Zaini was facing multimillion ringgit suits for his views published by the newspaper at the time.

The Blogger of the Year award was confined to telco bloggers last year. This year, it is opened to all bloggers.

A panel of judges led by a former High Court judge will decide the winners of these four categories.

There are 3 other awards: 5. The 1Malaysia Tan Sri Nasimuddin award 6. The Media Lifetime Achievements award, and 7. The Media Legend award. The 1Malaysia award is meant for the most inspiring newsmaker of the past year; the Lifetime award recognizes a practicing journalist's contributions to his/her society and profession; while the Media Legend is the NPC's answer to the Malaysian Press Institute's Tokoh Wartawan Negara award. 

The late Tan Sri Samad Ismail, who was also the first Tokoh Wartawan Negara, was named Media Legend last year to set the benchmark.