Human Rights Press Awards
The goal of the Awards is to increase respect for people’s basic rights and to focus attention on threats to those freedoms. We also aim to recognise and encourage excellent, investigative and original reporting on important issues in the mass media.
Categories
Investigative Writing (English)
Recognising investigative work in English that makes use of all journalistic tools to uncover or expose new details of a significant human rights issue.
Works must have been published in text-based news media including, but not restricted to, newspapers, magazines, journals and wire service. For a series of work, all of which must have been published, choose the top two articles and provide a brief summary of the rest.
Investigative Writing (Chinese)
Recognising investigative work in Chinese that makes use of all journalistic tools to uncover or expose new details of a significant human rights issue.
Works must have been published in text-based news media including, but not restricted to, newspapers, magazines, journals and wire service. For a series of work, all of which must have been published, choose the top two articles and provide a brief summary of the rest.
Photography
Recognising a single image or a series of images demonstrating excellence in photography on a single, specific human rights issue.
Maximum eight images per entry. All photographs must cover one single, specific human rights issue.
We accept JPEGs with a quality setting of eight or above. They should be at least 2,500 pixels on the longest side and resize for smaller images. Entries must contain an English-language caption for each photograph. If assistance is required with translation please contact the award administrators.
Multimedia
Recognising innovative, multi-format reporting on a human rights issue which makes use of two or more of the following mediums: text, photo essay, video, audio/podcast, infographic and/or interactive elements.
Makes use of two or more of the following mediums: text, photo essay, video, audio/podcast, infographic and/or interactive elements. This category is for works that do not fit easily into our other categories – so a standard article with a single photo, or a TV show with a simple transcript would not qualify. A URL is required for this category. Please note that we do not accept self-published works.
Documentary Video
Recognising excellent video reporting, both short- and long-form up to one hour in length, on an issue of human rights significance.
The works must be in English or Chinese (and English or Chinese subtitles for video entries that are in other languages) when it was originally published. We accept MediaPlayer or Quicktime compatible files. If the work is available online, please submit a URL.
Podcast (New for 2024)
Recognising audio-only reporting on human rights delivered online in a serial podcast format.
Coming soon.
Newsroom in Exile (New for 2024)
Recognising outstanding human-rights coverage on countries where on-the-ground reporting is dangerous or impossible, conducted by newsrooms located abroad.
Works must have been published in text-based news media including, but not restricted to, newspapers, magazines, journals and wire service. For a series of work, all of which must have been published, choose the top two articles and provide a brief summary of the rest.
How To Enter
Technical Requirements
Submissions for 2023 are currently closed. Check back for 2024 entry information.
Entry deadline is February 1, 2023, 11:59PM (HKT).
Please note entry deadline is final and there will be no extensions.
There is no entry fee.
Works must be:
- In English or Chinese
- Reported by professional journalists (except student categories), including freelancers, excluding corporations or activist groups.
- Published or broadcast during the past calendar year, January 1 to December 31, 2022 on a professional media platform (except students).
- Reported about the Asia region, including Central Asia, excluding Middle East, Australia, New Zealand
- Related to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Each entry must cite the specific article that the work seeks to address.
- No more than three entries per journalist are accepted. In some cases, series of multiple works can constitute one entry – see “Category” section above.
For student awards, no more than two works per entrant are accepted. Works by groups of students are accepted.
Any work already submitted for one category cannot also be submitted into any additional category (with the exception of the two photography categories).
Organizers
