The judging committee for the first Silk Road Global News Awards (SRGNA) met in Beijing Wednesday. During the meeting, the committee reviewed and confirmed the results of the award's second evaluation round.

Fang Jiangshan, deputy editor-in-chief of People's Daily, served as director of the judging committee, which consists of 21 members from different countries. Fang chaired the meeting on Wednesday, with other members joining in person or through online means. 

At the meeting, the Secretariat of the Belt and Road News Network (BRNN) presented the results through online voting. The committee members made the joint decision to shortlist 19 works including "Kazakhstan Belt and Road Initiative: The road to somewhere" for the Awards. Mushahid Hussain Syed, head of Pakistan's Friends of Silk Road club and chairman of the Pakistan-China Institute, was listed as a finalist for the Special Contribution Award.

Fang pointed out during the meeting that media is a significant force in guiding public opinion, enhancing people-to-people ties between countries and regions and telling stories of cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). 

Adhering to the principles of promoting peaceful cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning and win-win cooperation, SRGNA honors media colleagues and people from all walks of life who recognize, spread and interpret the cooperation concept and practice of jointly building BRI. The awards aim to build a consensus in which everyone attaches great importance to the development and joint cooperation needed to promote the great undertaking that is building a community with a shared future for mankind, Fang said. 

As a major project included in the List of Deliverables of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF), the first SRGNA presented six awards: In-depth Reporting Award, Commentary Award, Press Photo Award, Press Video Award, Short Video Award on the Fight against COVID-19 and Special Contribution Award. Among them, the Short Video Award on the Fight against COVID-19 was a special addition based on the global anti-pandemic efforts of the past two years.

SRGNA was launched and organized by BRNN, whose council chair is People's Daily. The Secretariat of the BRNN was responsible for implementing the awards.

As a pioneer, SRGNA follows an open and transparent selection process, giving full play to standardization, authority, openness and internationality. The Secretariat of the BRNN took concrete steps, welcomed opinions and suggestions, formulated the selection rules and programs, and orderly carried out tasks such as collecting entry works and forming the judging committee.

As the awards were open to media organizations and individuals from countries and regions along Belt and Road, a total of 4,485 entries from 80 countries and regions were collected during the entry phase. According to the SRGNA Guidelines, evaluation will take place over three rounds, with each round respectively evaluated by academic committees, a judging committee and the BRNN Council Meeting.

The results of the second evaluation round are set to be released on the BRNN website. The final evaluation is scheduled for the second BRNN Council Meeting, after which the winners of the 1st SRGNA will be officially announced. 

Global Times