Media

  By Viola Zhou and Christy Leung   Cartoon graphics of Taiwan's income distribution and animations showing why small businesses cannot survive, accompanied by music and voice-over, these are what a financial magazine provides for the public after angry students occupied the parliament for more than 20 days. Instead of acting as a platform for arguments only, mainstream media should provide the public with explanations and solutions as the society calms down from social movements, said Chen Yi-shan, deputy editor at Taiwan's CommonWealth magazine. Speaking to a group of journalism students at Hong Kong Baptist University, Ms Chen looked back at what is called the Sunflower Movement and addressed how professional media should play their informing and explanatory role. "At that time, lots of different interpretations of CSSTA were floating," Ms Chen said, referring to the controversial Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement that triggered the movement. "Some were given with a political agenda, but we could not talk about that during the movement." Ms Chen said news coverage tended to become fragmented as a result. Different opinions with no common ground were presented in a blind way. The movement ended with the agreement shelved, and with questions on Taiwan's future. Ms Chen tried to help her readers find the answers by looking from an economic perspective. "We are journalists, not recorders," she said. Getting at least three sources seems to be a golden rule for beginners, but Ms Chen said providing statistics and background analysis for readers is essential when it comes to complicated issues like the CSSTA. Ms Chen said to link with the new generation is another challenge for the traditional media. Similar to what happened in Hong Kong, citizen and student-run media blossomed during the movement in Taiwan. "The first piece of news was made by students of …

By Juliana Wu, Aaron Au and Sharon Shi Political cartoons help people to find the right way of expressing their opinions, said Harry Harrison, editorial cartoonist at the South China Morning Post. By "exaggerating" figures and news events and turning them into fun pictures, Mr Harrison has been illustrating Hong Kong's political and social issues since 1994. His recent works on Occupy Central have drawn great attention. One of them shows a tiny cartoon version of Joshua Wong Chi-fung poking at a giant panda with his umbrella, with the words saying "one country two systems in action." But Mr Harrison said as a cartoonist, he does not make people think in the way he does. "In most cases, people who come to my cartoons have a stance," he said. "It's just they don't catch a suitable word to say it and my cartoon gives them the sense of ‘that it is'." Mr Harrison is one of six SOPA Award-winning journalists speaking at a forum at Hong Kong Baptist University this week. Born to a military family, Mr Harrison has lived in Libya, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. He said the experience of moving around nurtured his sense of humour. Mr Harrison said some of his cartoons had drawn criticisms, and some others were deemed "inappropriate to publish" by editors at SCMP. "Not everybody can be happy," he said. "Having argument is a good thing. That means people are paying attention." (Edited by Viola Zhou. Copy-edited by Joey Hung.)

By Catherine Chen "In this highly controlled, intense, Communist-Party-ruling China, anyone trying to get ‘inside' are automatically perceived as troublemakers." It is what Didi Kirsten Tatlow has learned from her 10 years' experience as a foreign correspondent in China. Although faced with great obstacles, the New York Times reporter never gives up her right to show the world what is inside the country where freedom of press is largely restrained. Why can't a Chinese man talk about it Speaking at the first sharing session of the HKBU-SOPA Award Winners Forum, Ms Tatlow addressed the dilemma of "inside" and "outside" when reporting in mainland China. Ms Tatlow said as a foreign journalist, she has been denied access to information frequently. Many government officials and other sources in China believe she does not understand the situation and should not be covering about that. "Only insiders are allowed to talk about the business," she said. Ms Tatlow said she had been told that "only Chinese women are allowed to talk about the situation of Chinese women," a view she deemed "ridiculous." "Why can't a Chinese man talk about it?" I'll do this because it's truth "Fish don't know they are in water," Ms Tatlow said. "The situation is about how we take a lot of things for granted." Mainland state media have been accusing their foreign counterparts of selectively reporting on the negative side of China. Ms Tatlow disagrees. "I'll do this because it's truth," she said. But different interpretations can occur as a result of different personal views. In a documentary titled Who is Xi, Ms Tatlow described China's president Xi Jinping as someone "who has removed or has been trying to remove a lot of corruptions from the system that is really threatening to people's well-being and livelihoods." Some of her …

Mr Steve Sack talks about his 33 year career as an editorial cartoonist

A man in a suit is checking the stock lines on his phone; a group of school boys are huddling around a tablet playing an online game; a Filipino domestic helper is sharing interesting stories of her day with friends thousands of miles away at home through Bluetooth earphones.

The Workshop was launched in 2006 by the university's Department of Journalism. It aims to advance journalistic education in Hong Kong and the Greater China Region. The workshop offers a week-long series of intellectual activities, including open lectures, forum and seminars. This year, the theme of the forum is "The Public's Right to Know Versus National Security."

Doing investigative reporting in China was both a "privilege" for and the "responsibility" of foreign reporters, said Mr Michael Forsythe, Hong Kong correspondent specialised in covering the Communist state for Bloomberg News.

"Investigation in the light and dark"  The Society of Publishers in Asia, which is also known as SOPA, presented this year's award, under the topic: Investigative Reporting in Asia. One of the HKBU-SOPA Award Winners, Mr. Ernest Chi, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Investigative Team Leader of Ming Pao shared his experience in doing the investigative reports on the illegal structure controversy concerning Chief Executive candidates Henry Tang and C.Y. Leung, shared their awarded pieces and participated in lectures and discussions last week. Being the only awarded Chinese editor in this year's Excellence in Investigative Reporting 2013, Mr. Chi, starts his sharing by introducing different investigative reports done by Ming Pao in past few years.  They have reported on the rigged purchases of Henderson Land's luxurious residential, privatization plan of PCCW, vote rigging in the district council election, the death of Li Wang-yang and the abused entertainment funds usage of the ex-chief of ICAC Timothy Tong during his term of office.  The piece that has created the biggest controversy and impact in the society should be the investigative report on the illegal structures of the Chief Executive election candidates in 2012. According to Mr. Chi, "it is common to find illegal structures in the city. But standing on the moral high ground, Chief Executive candidates should defense the law, and they failed to do so." An estate reporter in Mr. Chi's investigation team knew from an architect that there were some illegal basements in villas located in Kowloon Tong. And the villa of Chief Executive candidates Henry Tang, located on York Road was one of them. His team tried to track down all the sources to proof the illegal basement's existence. Since Mr. Tang's cellar was used to store wine, they had planed to send bottles of wine as a gift to …

Reporter: Lokie Wong & James Zhang  The trial of former Politburo member and Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai was a means through which the current leadership of the Chinese Communist Party consolidated its power, said award-winning journalist Mr Jamil Anderlini. The head of the Beijing Bureau of Financial Times made the remark at a sharing session with journalism students of Hong Kong Baptist University on November 7 as part of the first HKBU-SOPA Award Winners Forum. Mr Anderlinin won the Journalist of the Year award in 2010 and Excellence in Human Rights Reporting award in 2012. This year, he won the Excellence in Feature Writing award for his investigative story, Bo Xilai: Power, death and politics, which sheds light on the political scandals surrounding Bo's downfall. Speaking to a capacity crowd, the three-time SOPA Award winner started the sharing session with a reflection on the political significance of the trial of Bo and the hidden agenda of the Chinese government. The trial was "all part of a consolidation of power by the current leadership and the maintenance of the Communist Party's grip on power," he said. Although the verdict for Bo was pretty clear from the start, the government and party still went through great lengths to ensure that the public would view the trial as open and fair, said Mr Anderlini. The veteran journalist pointed out that there was a growing concern among the Chinese leadership over the legitimisation of its action. "It also showed how power is not institutionalized in China, especially during the transition of power," he said. Mr Anderlini suggested that although the trial was meant to create a sort of "new rule of law in China", it actually reduced legitimacy and people's trust in the government. "The system needs to legitimise its actions because there …

A double award winning journalist speaks of lessons learned from witnessing death occur right before his eyes.