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The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in Canada (HKETO) today (December 18, Toronto time) are pleased to announce that two Canadian journalism students and one professional journalist are winners of the Hong Kong Student Fellowship and the Dateline Hong Kong Fellowship.
Brett Bundale from Concordia University and Meagan Kelly from Carleton University are the winners of the student fellowships. Zena Olijnyk of Canadian Business Magazine is the winner of the Dateline Hong Kong Fellowship for working journalists.
The winners were chosen by a panel of three adjudicators selected by the CAJ¡¯s national board of directors. The judges were Saleem Khan, freelancer (Toronto); Mary Agnes Welch, Winnipeg Free Press (Winnipeg), and Melissa Leong, National Post (Toronto).
The winners were selected on the strength of their applications which included detailed story proposals and a guarantee that their reporting from Hong Kong would be published in Canada.
¡°We are delighted to send these fellowship winners to Hong Kong to learn about such an important economic and cultural powerhouse,¡± said Mary Agnes Welch, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists and one of the fellowship judges. ¡°We¡¯re sure the experience will make them even better journalists.¡±
The Deputy director of the HKETO, Mr Y.C, Chan, said: ¡°We are glad to know that these three winners will visit Hong Kong soon to gain first-hand experience of Hong Kong¡¯s free society, its way of life, its rich cultural heritage and its unique position as Asia¡¯s world city.
¡°As the official representative of the Hong Kong Government, we would like to encourage students and journalists in Canada to explore, research and write about such a fascinating place. Past winners of the two fellowships found the experience eye-opening and invaluable.¡±
The fellowship winners will travel to Hong Kong over the next year and will have their airfare and accommodations covered for their week-long visit. Neither the CAJ nor the HKETO have any editorial control over the journalism produced by the fellowship winners.
The Canadian Association of Journalists is a professional organisation with about 1 500 members across Canada. The CAJ's primary role is to provide public interest advocacy and high quality professional development for its members.
Ends/Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Issued at HKT 11:45
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