Merit awards for 12 websites
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    Twelve healthy and resourceful websites  today (January 20) received merit awards and two others won "Meritorious Website Hall of Fame Awards" as part of the "2006 Meritorious Website Contest".

     The 12 meritorious websites and the winners of the "Meritorious Website Hall of Fame Awards" are as follows:

Meritorious Websites:

  Depressed Little Prince:  www.depression.edu.hk
  Dickdic:  www.cpce.gov.hk/dickdick
  Disney:  www.disney.go.com
  HKedcity:  www.hkedcity.net
  Kids.yam:  kids.yam.com
  Myenglishpal:  www.myenglishpal.com
  Oceanpark:  www.oceanpark.com.hk
  RTHK on Internet:  www.rthk.org.hk
  Smallcampus:  www.smallcampus.net
  Yahoo:  www.yahoo.com
  Yahoo Hong Kong:  hk.yahoo.com
  Zoo of Chinese Idioms:  resources.emb.gov.hk/idiom2

Meritorious Website Hall of Fame Awards:

  Hyper Earth Rescue Team:  www.hyper.com.hk
  Mcdull:  www.mcdull.hk

     Speaking at the prize presentation ceremony at Southorn Indoor Stadium today, the Commissioner for Television and Entertainment Licensing, Ms Lorna Wong, said information technology had become part of life in Hong Kong.

     "The Internet has become a common tool for information search and communication. On the Internet, there is beneficial information but also objectionable articles which could have bad influence on youngsters' psychological development," Ms Wong said.

     "It is very important to strengthen the education for youngsters for a correct concept about the correct use of the Internet, to combat the possible bad influence of objectionable articles.

     "The Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA) has, for several years, co-organised with non-government organisations a great number of education and publicity activities of a wide range of nature. The annual Meritorious Website Contest is one of them," Ms Wong said.  

     Jointly organised by the TELA and the Hong Kong Playground Association, and co-organised by the Education and Manpower Bureau, the Committee on Home-School Co-operation, Radio Television Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, the contest is aimed at encouraging young people to pay more visits to healthy websites, and to recognise the contributions of the producers of healthy websites.

     The participation rate of this year's contest was high with 1,251 nominations being received. Of the nominated websites, 404 were valid and 196,343 votes were cast in the contest.

     The 12 winning websites cover a variety of topics including general information, education, psychology and environmental protection. Awardees were invited to set up booths at today's presentation ceremony to present the merits of their websites to the public.

     To encourage wider public participation in this year's event, a variety of competitions and activities were organised, including "Website Wallpaper Design Competition", "Most Active Voting School Award", "Meritorious Website Voting Prize" and "Meritorious Website Student Ambassador Programme". Pop singers Barry Ip Man-fai and Stephanie Cheng Yung were also invited to act as "Stars of Meritorious Websites" to help publicise the activity.

     For more details about the contest, please visit: www.merit.gov.hk



Ends/Saturday, January 20, 2007
Issued at HKT 17:01

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