The Negeri Sembilan Chinese Journalists Association held its Dato’ Seri Lee Tian Hock Journalism Awards (拿督斯里李典和新聞獎) on October 10, marking the first ceremony in ten years. The awards, named for a Negeri Sembilan property developer and philanthropist known for supporting Chinese community institutions, celebrated the association’s 40th anniversary. Transportation Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook (陸兆福) — who represents Seremban in parliament as a member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) — used the occasion to defend legacy media’s continued relevance, arguing that despite social media’s rise, traditional journalism remains essential and deserves public support.
The awards honored reporters across six categories: political/official news reporting, business news, social news, association/education and culture news, photography, and new media. Nanyang Siang Pau (南洋商報) dominated the competition, winning two excellence awards and three merit awards across multiple categories, while Sin Chew Daily (星洲日報), China Press (中國報), and Oriental Daily (東方日報) also received recognition.
Association chairman Chen Shao Yang (陳劭揚), who has publicly supported the idea of news media as a “Fourth Estate,” called for government and industry cooperation on news payment systems, platform negotiation mechanisms, and copyright protections to ensure quality reporting survives. He warned that artificial intelligence, while useful for organizing facts, cannot replace journalists’ judgment and ethics. Chen welcomed the June 14, 2025 establishment of the Malaysian Media Council (馬來西亞媒體理事會), an independent self-regulatory body for the media industry, as a step toward industry self-regulation, expressing hope it would address emerging challenges including AI ethics guidelines and content compensation models for an industry struggling with declining resources and recruitment difficulties.
