‘Lusophone Journalism Award’ launched

Dinis de Abreu (left) and Rocha Diniz

A local newspaper joined with the Portuguese Press Club (CPI) to launch a journalism award targeting Portuguese-speaking countries and regions. The EUR10,000 (around MOP86,000) “Lusophone Journalism Award” was presented this week in Macau.

The award aims to recognize works about Macau published by lusophone print and digital media. It is seen by its promoters as a way to “highlight the singular positioning of Macau and its role as a platform connecting Portuguese-speaking countries.”

“It is an annual award with very substantial value,” José Rocha Diniz, administrator of Jornal Tribuna de Macau (JTM), told the Times, explaining that the prize has no governmental support and is being financed by the promoting organizations. “We think that the socioeconomic changes that occurred in Macau are still unknown to most of the people who speak Portuguese. The novelty of this prize is its enlargement of the lusophone space. To do that, we needed to have an attractive prize,” the veteran journalist said.

Rocha Diniz recognized that it is unusual to have a newspaper promoting a journalism award, but added that the independence of the prize should not be called into question. “The award will have a jury composed by members of the CPI, the newspaper [JTM] and a major figure of the Portuguese literary [sector]. […] It is unusual, but it is also unusual that a Portuguese language newspaper lasted for almost 35 years in Macau. That has never happened,” he said.

CPI president Dinis de Abreu, former editor-in-chief of Diário de Notícias, was in Macau to give a lecture at the Military Club about the challenges faced by media worldwide. Acknowledging that there is a crisis in the generalist press, de Abreu said that it is not all bad news. “Conversely, the local and community press – the category in which I consider the press here in Macau to belong – is being strengthened,” he said. “Internet is global, but people lack information about the neighborhood, about what is happening around them. That is what the local press does.”

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of his presentation, the CPI president said that “there is a resurgent interest in Macau” in Portugal. “China is increasingly investing in Portugal in sectors such as the banking, insurance and electricity industries. So it is only natural that there is more interest in Portugal regarding Macau affairs, which has always been a bridge between East and West.”