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The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in Canada (HKETO) and the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) are proud to announce today (February 26 Canada time) that three Canadian journalism students have won the Student Journalists Hong Kong Fellowship. This Fellowship was launched last December, following the success of the Dateline Hong Kong Fellowship for Canadian working journalists.
The winning students are: Robert Scalia (Concordia University, Montreal), Liam Mitchell (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) and Melissa Leong (Ryerson University, Toronto).
Applications were adjudicated by three judges selected from the National Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Journalists. The judges are Michelle MacAfee, Canadian Press, Montreal; Tom Arnold, National Post, Toronto; and Saleem Khan, a Toronto-based independent journalist.
The winners were selected based on the strength of their applications, which included story proposals and their confirmation that they would publish or broadcast their stories about Hong Kong in the local media or in their university/school journals or newsletters.
The Director of the HKETO (Canada), Mrs. Rosanna Ure, said: "We are very pleased with the response, which indicates a genuine strong interest among Canadian student journalists in exploring Hong Kong's way of life, its rich cultural heritage and its unique position as Asia's world city."
"We are pleased to help young journalists in Canada explore, research and write about such a fascinating region," said Mr. Rob Cribb, President of the CAJ. " It will no doubt prove to be invaluable experience for this year's winners and those in the future."
The purpose of the fellowship is to offer students of all recognised journalism schools in Canada an opportunity to acquaint themselves with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. Funding for this new project comes from the Hong Kong SAR Government.
The winners will receive a return air ticket between Canada and Hong Kong and hotel accommodation for nine nights and ten days.
During the trip, the HKETO will help the winners research their chosen subjects by familiarizing them with Hong Kong and helping them arrange interviews while they visit various points of interest, and meet people of diverse views and cultural backgrounds.
A call for applicants for the Dateline Hong Kong Fellowship 2002 for working journalists will be announced in May, 2002.
End/Wednesday, February 27, 2002
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