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Following is a translation of the speech by the Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, at the Hong Kong News Awards 2005 presentation ceremony at JW Marriott Hotel, Admiralty this afternoon (April 10):
Mr Lee Cho Jat, friends of the press, ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon. I am greatly honoured to attend this presentation ceremony of the Hong Kong News Awards 2005 organised by the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong, again sharing the fruits of hard work by the Hong Kong journalists for the past year.
All over the world, news often catches the most attention and arouses the most controversies. Technological advances especially in the 21st century have made mass media and journalism one of the most rapidly developed businesses over the last decade. Thanks to the IT revolution, information flows faster than ever before. In an instant, news circulates around the globe, stirring the whole world. Men and countries are no longer separated by physical distance, an unprecedented situation in human history.
Journalism bears the brunt of this tremendous change, and we can well imagine the challenges you journalists are facing. Information is transmitted at the speed of light. Whether we are travelling to office in Central, having lunch in a local-style restaurant or watching TV at home in the evening, news floods in, be it in written or image forms, through our mobile phones, electronic diaries, palm computers and even giant display screens on the streets. The relationship between news consumers and journalists changes. More choices are available to consumers. So the first challenge journalists face now is whether they should produce more reports popular among consumers or reports of significance to society. We all know that popular news is not necessarily significant news. Sensational tabloid news reported by paparazzi as seen world-wide, often secures high readership. Such news, however, seems to leave no mark in history. As a famous US journalist, Bob Woodward, put it, "I think journalism gets measured by the quality of information it presents, not the drama or the pyrotechnics associated with us."
News today is the draft for history tomorrow. Journalists should be fully devoted to their mission, finding for themselves the right direction to properly handle news.
The second challenge comes from speed and depth. As speed and volume of information increase, we can access all news items on each website as detailed as you want. Search engines are so powerful now that thousands of relevant newslines pop out in seconds. News and information is now so conveniently at hand. The prosperity of free news websites and newspapers are inundating readers with a tremendous volume of information, but does it mean that we are getting more in-depth news stories? Journalists should strive for depth rather than just speed, presenting full details of news stories highlighting their meaning to the present world. Apart from quantity, one should also seek to enhance the quality of content, writing, graphics, artwork and printing. Only by doing so can traditional newspapers survive under this challenge.
The third challenge stems from the competition between professionals and amateurs. In this era of the Internet, everyone can become a journalist. Blogs, so popular among youth in recent years, have transformed into a new medium for news. When the United States first declared war with Iraq, an Iraqi engineer stunned the world with a Baghdad Blog that contained reports even more striking than those written by war correspondents. Now bloggers come from all walks of life, writing with inside information to produce explosive results. They are competitors of conventional journalists. But the credibility of bloggers may be questionable so journalists should stand firm in upholding professional integrity to win readers' respect. All these are just observations from me - a layman of journalism, but this layman is also under your microscope. Your quality, insight and vision are driving forces to our advancement, good references for our decisions and essential pointers to our success or failure. Improvements on your part are ours in essence.
Friends of the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong should know far better than me in this aspect. The Hong Kong News Awards have an enormous impact on the standard of the journalistic profession. I hope that this is a big event not only for the press but also for the community at large, that the Hong Kong News Awards will move towards the status equal to the authoritative Pulitzer Prize in the US.
Finally, let me do a little advertising. Newspaper reporting is the most common type of writing that members of the public come in contact with every day. It surely has a direct bearing on our language proficiency. The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research has been sponsoring, for the fourth year through the Language Fund, six awards in Chinese and English writing to promote the standard of the media and the community. Its support means a great deal.
I would like to express my sincere congratulations to all winning journalists and organisations today. Let's all gear up to brace the tremendous changes of this age.
Ends/Monday, April 10, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:19
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