The Consumer Council’s 24th Consumer Rights Reporting Awards (CRRA) continues to celebrate the tireless efforts of journalists who shed light on various consumption topics through quality news reports over the past year, raising public awareness on consumer rights and empowering them to protect themselves. As an annual grand event of the media industry, this year’s CRRA attracted a record-shattering 471 entries from 46 news organisations, social media platforms and higher education institutions.
At the CRRA Presentation Ceremony today (12 November 2024), following addresses by the Guest of Honour, Dr Bernard Chan Pak-li, Acting Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the HKSAR Government, and Mr Clement Chan Kam-wing, Chairman of the Consumer Council, a total of 39 awards in 9 categories were presented, including 7 Gold Awards, 7 Silver Awards, 7 Bronze Awards, 7 Merit Awards, 3 Best Audience Engagement Awards, 1 Best Presentation Award, 1 Grand Prize, 5 Topical Reporting Awards, and the prestigious Grand Award. As with past years, the ceremony this year received overwhelming support from the media with over 160 in attendance, including media organisations’ management members, journalists, awardees, journalism academics, who warmly celebrated the awardees’ achievements and exchanged anecdotes and insights.
Since CRRA’s launch 24 years ago, the Consumer Council has been working closely alongside media partners to promote consumer rights and raise public awareness on a wide range of consumer issues, strengthening consumers’ self-protection ability amidst today’s rapidly evolving consumption environment. Consumption permeates every aspect of daily life. Apart from topics related to basic necessities such as clothing, food, housing and transportation, this year’s entries also probed into issues related to changes in consumption trends, new forms of scams, investment traps, medical beauty, and anti-competitive practices in the marketplace. At the same time, as e-commerce has become increasingly prevalent, many entries examined various phenomena related to online shopping, digital payment systems, and virtual assets. The scope of the topics reflects that the media keeps close tabs on the consumer trends and latest development of the marketplace, providing holistic consumption information to the public.
Welcoming guests and awardees, Mr Clement Chan Kam-wing, Chairman of the Consumer Council, said, “In the past half century, the Consumer Council has researched and advocated on various consumption issues, with a view to safeguard consumer interests. The effort of our media partners is indispensable in the speedy dissemination of essential, relevant and accurate consumer tips to the public. Starting from 2 January next year, the content of CHOICE Magazine will be available online for public access free of charge. To achieve success, we greatly rely on the full support of our media partners to share consumption news related to all facets of daily life, so that consumers may shop smart and fuel the economy together.”
The Guest of Honour, Dr Bernard Chan Pak-li, Acting Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the HKSAR Government, addressed the audience in his opening speech, “The Consumer Council has always been the greatest stronghold for protecting the consumer rights of citizens and tourists, providing timely consumption information through product tests, service trials, market surveys and research, to help the public make informed choices. The Council is also the gatekeeper for monitoring price fluctuations and traders’ sales practices. The media have always been vital partners of the Council in promoting consumer protection. Through professional and unbiased reporting, the media investigate various consumption-related topics and even reveal sales traps, not only providing the latest news and alerts to empower the public and tourists to protect themselves, but also bringing recent situations in the marketplace to the attention of the Government and the Consumer Council. Such efforts are mutually beneficial for our work in promoting the protection of consumers’ rights and interests.”
The Grand Award, selected among the Gold Awards in each category, recognises the most influential journalistic endeavour of the year. After rigorous evaluation and voting by the adjudication panel, TVB’s entry “News Magazine: Comeback of the ‘Black Taxis’?” (新聞透視《黑的也復常？》) from theVideo Reporting Award (Long Clip) category won this year’s Grand Award, with a trophy and a cash prize of HK$20,000 awarded to the reporter Poon Kei Wai. The topic for the “Topical Reporting Award 2023” was “How the Application of Innovation and Technology is Impacting Consumers ” and the award went to the Ta Kung Pao series “Deciphering Digital Food Ordering” (電子點餐解碼系列)by reporters Ng Hin Pui and Liu Shuoyuan, who were presented with a trophy and a cash prize of HK$20,000.
Feature Writing Award
This year’s Feature Writing Award went to TVB’s “A Closer Look: Property Market Series” (時事多面睇《樓市糸列》). This 3-episode series delved into the various phenomena of Hong Kong’s property market, including sham cases of loss-making property sales and their connections with real estate agents, property purchased with “breathing mortgage plans” falling into foreclosure, and safeguard for homebuyers provided by current legislation against the purchase of stigmatised property. Through deep diving into the topics, the news report analysed the underlying causes of such phenomena so as to enhance the self-protection ability of potential property buyers.
Investigative Reporting Award
The Gold Award for the Investigative Reporting Award category went to the “Fish Market Tempest Series” (魚市場風暴系列) by Ta Kung Pao. The news report revealed the ongoing market control at the Aberdeen Wholesale Fish Market by alleged gang members, involving price fixing of seafood and suspected contravention of the Competition Ordinance, and even allegations of smuggling. The report eventually drew the attention of law enforcement authorities. The Competition Commission, together with six departments including the Hong Kong Police Force, conducted an investigation and joint operation at the fish market to combat price fixing and uphold a fair business environment.
Audio Reporting Award
RTHK’s entry “Impossible Ticketing｜Concert Scams Surge as Less than Half of Hong Kong Coliseum’s Tickets Available for Public Sale.” (一票難求｜演唱會騙案激增 紅館公售比例少於一半) took this year’s Gold Award for this category. Sports and entertainment events have resumed after the pandemic with tickets for some popular shows proving almost impossible to secure, while the number of online scams related to concert tickets have also seen a resurgence. Although the Government had discussed legislation on regulating the resale of tickets and implementing a real-name ticketing system back in 2018, very few events have actually adopted real-name ticketing since. Reporters interviewed members of the public and various regulatory bodies to investigate the issues of ticket speculation and concert ticket scams.
Video Reporting Award (Short Clip & Long Clip)
The Gold Award of this year’s Video Reporting Award (Short Clip) went to "Fukushima Seafood Did Not Exceed Radiation Limit” by now News. The reporter personally visited Fukushima to buy fresh seafood caught after Japan released nuclear wastewater into the ocean, and brought it back to Hong Kong’s laboratory to test the level of radioactive contamination. The news report used a scientific and empirical approach to help consumers understand whether the banned Japanese seafood poses risks to human health, and to help them make informed consumption choices.
The video news report “News Magazine: Comeback of the ‘Black Taxis’?” (新聞透視《黑的也復常？》) by TVB won the Gold Award in the Video Reporting Award (Long Clip) category. Misconducts by taxi drivers have been in the public limelight in recent years, and such malpractices have been difficult to eradicate despite the police’s increased enforcement efforts. Using Macau’s past successful case for comparison, the reporter scrutinised how the regulation of e-hailing platforms would affect market competition and pondered possible adjustments to Hong Kong’s personalised point-to-point car transport service market, so as to provide more diverse options for consumers.
News Photography Award
Consolidating the respective scores from the adjudication panel and the public voting results, the News Photography Gold Award was awarded to HK01’s “Group-meal Restaurants Jam-packed with Package Tours”. The entry captured images of restaurants in To Kwa Wan fully packed with inbound tour groups from the Mainland after the boundary reopened. The limited capacity of the restaurants not only caused situations such as “15-minute lightning speed group meals” and tourists having to wolf down boxed meals on the pavement, but also affected the daily lives of residents in the area. The Travel Industry Authority subsequently requested Mainland inbound tour groups not to shop and dine in the same district with the aim of staggering the flow of tourists.
Tertiary Student Journalism Award
“Ramp-and-Dump Trap” from the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong won the Gold Award in the Tertiary Student Journalism Award category after adjudication and public voting. Many investment plans use celebrity endorsement to attract consumers, yet reporters discovered some of these plans to be so-called ramp-and-dump traps. By exposing the tactics employed by these investment schemes to attract small investors and “ramp and dump”, the winning entry reminded the public to protect themselves from such investment traps.
Best Use of Social Platform in Consumer Advocacy
After combining scores for audience engagement and that from the adjudicators, “Consumer Council Tests 15 Suitcases // Priciest Model from RIMOWA Costing $8500 Scored Only 3.5 Stars with Unsatisfactory Durability” (消委會15款行李箱測試// 最貴$8500 RIMOWA只得3星半 耐用度未如理想) by HK01 News won the Excellence Award. The informative winning entry was created with content published in the Council’s CHOICE Magazine, making it easier for readers to browse and digest on the social media platform.
A prestigious annual award in the industry, the CRRA is organised by the Consumer Council with the aim of recognising excellence in reporting issues relating to consumer rights. This year’s adjudication panel comprised 17 renowned representatives from various professional organisations and journalism academia, alongside the Chairman, Members and management members of the Council. The CRRA was revamped in 2022 with the introduction of the Social Platforms category and the Topical Reporting Award, with the topic for 2024 being “Consumer Rights Beyond Boundaries”. At the same time, public voting for the “News Photography Award” and “Tertiary Student Journalism Award” categories was also introduced and met with overwhelming response. The CRRA will continue to move with the times and work with the media to protect consumer rights.
Image captions
- Welcome speech by Mr Clement Chan Kam-wing, Chairman of the Consumer Council
- Opening remarks by the Guest of Honour, Dr Bernard Chan Pak-li, Acting Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the HKSAR Government.
- The Guest of Honour, Dr Bernard Chan Pak-li, Acting Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development,viewed the exhibit panels of the winning entries, accompanied by Mr Clement Chan Kam-wing, Chairman of the Consumer Council and Ms Gilly Wong Fung-han, Chief Executive of the Consumer Council.
- “News Magazine: Comeback of the ‘Black Taxis’?” (新聞透視《黑的也復常？》) from theVideo Reporting Award (Long Clip) category won this year’s Grand Award. TVB reporter Poon Kei Wai received the trophy from Dr Bernard Chan Pak-li, Acting Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Clement Chan Kam-wing, Chairman of the Consumer Council, and Ms Gilly Wong Fung-han, Chief Executive of the Consumer Council.
- The entry “Deciphering Digital Food Ordering” (電子點餐解碼系列)was the winner of the Topical Reporting Award. Ta Kung Pao reporters Ng Hin Pui and Liu Shuoyuan received the award fromDr Bernard Chan Pak-li, Acting Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Clement Chan Kam-wing, Chairman of the Consumer Council, and Ms Gilly Wong Fung-han, Chief Executive of the Consumer Council.
- The Guest of Honour, award presenters, Consumer Council representatives, and the adjudication panel.
