Malaysiakini won its first Kajai Award today, in addition to two gold prizes at the MPI-Petronas Malaysian Journalism Awards 2023.

The top award in Malaysian journalism went to journalists S Vinothaa, Ooi Choon Nam, and Affan Amrish Mohd Jalani for their contribution to Malaysiakini’s three-part series on how stateless children in Sabah have been forcibly taken from their parents and put up for adoption.

Ooi was the web developer while Affan was the designer for the project.

The award comes with an RM30,000 cash prize, a trophy, and a certificate.

The series has also been nominated for the Society of Publishers in Asia (Sopa) 2024 Awards and has since been made into a 16-minute documentary.

READ MORE | Baby snatching: How stateless mums lose their infants in Sabah hospital

Others who contributed to the series are Aidila Razak and Basil Foo but were not named during the nomination process due to the competition’s restrictions on the number of categories each participant can be nominated for.

The other two articles in the series are:

Another top award, the Tokoh Wartawan Negara Award, went to the former writer and columnist Adibah Amin.

Vinothaa also won first place in the “Best Investigative Journalism” category for a series of reports on corruption and human trafficking within the migrant worker industry.

The series was published in two batches, in June and in November, 2023.

The award comes with an RM10,000 cash prize, a trophy, and a certificate.

It will be shared with former journalist Arulldas Sinnappan and Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIJ) Nepal’s Ramu Sapkota, who contributed but could not be nominated for the award due as they do not hold valid Malaysian media press accreditation cards.

Second place went to New Straits Times for its report on vehicle recycling syndicates, while third place went to Perak RTM for its report on financial scams.

For the “Best Multimedia Journalism” category, Malaysiakini finished first with its two-part data journalism series on the “Green Wave” phenomenon which saw a swing of votes to Perikatan Nasional in the recent elections.

Part 1: State polls: How far can the ‘Green Wave’ go?

Part 2: Was the Green Wave powered by young voters?

The interactive feature explained the electoral dynamics that would drive the six state elections held last year and allows readers to simulate the outcome of the election under different scenarios.

A second part explored how young voters played a role in Perikatan Nasional’s significant inroads during the 15th general election, which had taken many political observers by surprise.

Those named for the award are Andrew Ong, Ooi, Aidila, Syariman Badrulzaman, Hariz Mohd, Raveena Nagotra, and Pia Ernadya.

Others who contributed to the project but were not included in the nomination due to competition rules were Yap Si Err, Emylia Rosli, Mahen Manickam, Rahmat Haron and Siti Afifah Kamaruddin.

Second place went to The Star’s “Colours of Malaysia” series, while third place went to Astro Awani’s report highlighting various trivia about the six states that held elections last year.

Former Malaysiakini journalist Raveena Nagotra was also shortlisted for the A Samad Ismail award for young journalists for her reporting while with the news portal.

Apart from these categories, the MPI-Petronas Malaysian Journalism Awards also recognised many other categories such as best infographics, best photojournalism, best young reporter, and best news report.

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MPI receives over RM1m sponsorship for journalism night, awards

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