Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said on Monday that news today is the draft for history tomorrow. Journalists should be fully devoted to their mission, finding for themselves the right direction to properly handle news.

He made the remarks at the Hong Kong News Awards presentation ceremony on Monday.

Tsang said the relationship between news consumers and journalists changes. More choices are available to consumers. So the first challenge journalists face now is whether they should produce more reports popular among consumers or reports of significance to society.

He said "we all know that popular news is not necessarily significant news. Sensational tabloid news reported by paparazzi as seen world-wide, often secures high readership. Such news, however, seems to leave no mark in history."

The chief executive also urged journalists to strive for depth rather than just speed, presenting full details of news stories highlighting their meaning to the present world.

He added apart from quantity, one should also seek to enhance the quality of content, writing, graphics, artwork and printing.

Only by doing so can traditional newspapers survive under this challenge.

Tsang said the Hong Kong News Awards have an enormous impact on the standard of the journalistic profession. I hope that this is a big event not only for the press but also for the community at large, that the Hong Kong News Awards will move towards the status equal to the authoritative Pulitzer Prize in the US.

The 62-item Hong Kong News Awards 2005 were conferred to journalists from over a dozen of Chinese and English language newspapers in Hong Kong. The award winning stories covered the HK Ministerial Meetings of the WTO, Tsunami anniversary, Bird Flu prevention and some other major events of Hong Kong in 2005.

Source: Xinhua