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The Consumer Rights Reporting Awards Reached its 20th Anniversary Milestone Over 3,000 Entries in Advocacy of Consumer Rights

  • 2020.11.04

The Consumer Rights Reporting Awards (CRRA), now has reached its 20th year, was first launched in 2001 by the Consumer Council in conjunction with the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) and the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association (HKPPA). This year, the CRRA received a total of 155 entries in the different categories – 70 Print, 5 Audio, 37 Video, 22 Press Photo, and 21 Campus.

At the CRRA Presentation Ceremony today, a total of 40 awards in 7 categories, including 2 “Grand Awards”, 6 “Honorary Awards,” and 4 “Sustainable Consumption Reporting Awards” were presented by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, The Honourable Edward Yau Tang-wah, GBS, JP, and the Council Chairman, Mr. Paul Lam Ting-kwok, SC, JP.                                       

The entries this year were rich in content and diversity with a number of them exposing the need to strengthen regulatory regime to curb unscrupulous trade practices in certain industries such as developers of first-hand residential properties attracting customers with high cash rebates not included in official sales contract.  Another entry exposed some finance companies of encouraging money-borrowing, suggesting that the government should strengthen monitoring and regulation. Other topics were also closely related to the livelihood, including whether social media apps was involved in illegal tracking of users’ activities for advertisement purpose as well as the operation of the food delivery apps in the market.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the CRRA and to encourage media to keep producing more high-quality consumer news reports, the Council set up the “Grand Award” to honour the most outstanding journalistic report of the year. The adjudication panel decided that a series report on "HPV Vaccine" in the “Text Category” and a report on "Health Care Voucher" in the “Video Category” shared the award with cash prize HK$10,000 each as a token of appreciation. Meanwhile, “Honorary Awards” were presented to individual journalist and media organisations that have won the most awards throughout the history of CRRA. Ms. Sin Wan Kei (冼韻姬), a seasoned journalist who had previously won 17 awards, added one more under her belt while media organizations that have won the most awards are (Radio) RTHK, (TV) TVB, and (Newspaper/Magazine) Ming Pao. Since the inclusion of entries from online media in 2017 to embrace the digital development of the media industry, HK01 has won the most awards among the online media news organizations. In addition, the Chinese University of Hong Kong has won the most awards in the “Campus Newspaper Category” since it was first launched in 2015.

In his welcome speech, the Council Chairman Mr. Paul Lam Ting-kwok, SC said, “As the wheel of time turns, new technologies such as the Internet of things, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud technology, and biometrics have brought radical changes to the consumption environment, raising more yet complicated consumer rights issues. While the Council would continue to assume the watchdog’s role, the monitoring role of the media would be pivotal in protecting consumers’ rights comprehensively and effectively in the new era of digital economy.”

Text Category

The text category, comprising 2 main streams – “News/Feature/Commentary” and “Investigative Reporting” – had 42 and 28 entries, respectively.

The Gold Award in the "News/Features/Comments Category” went to a report exposing the shortfalls of health care vouchers. Through interviews with medical practitioners, elderly and academics, the report revealed that many elders did not know how to use the online system to obtain information on medical service providers, and the abuse of health care vouchers usage was common. The authorities also lacked measures to encourage senior citizens to explore more primary health care services.

The Gold Award in the "Investigative Reporting Category” revealed some unscrupulous clinic doctors soliciting Mainland customers to get genuine HPV vaccinations but only providing injection of parallel import vaccines from unknown sources for reaping more profit. The report had aroused substantial public attention. The reporter conducted in-depth investigations and found that private clinics, vaccine clinics, medical companies, insurance industry, and online intermediaries had formed an interest chain. Upon the publication of the report , many victims came to Hong Kong to trace the authenticity of the vaccines and demanded refund. The private clinics and vaccine clinics involved then closed their business and law enforcement agencies also intervened to conduct investigation. This report also won the “Grand Award”.

Audio and Audio-visual Category

The Gold Award in the “Audio Category” explored the authenticity of online recommendations made by some Key Opinion Leaders (KOL). The reporter revealed that some KOLs were suspected to be in violation of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance by falsely claiming that they had used certain products and made product reviews. The report suggested the government to regulate online promotion with reference to other Western countries.

In the “Audio-visual Category”, the Gold Award for short clips documented some people cleaning up before the Lunar New Year and donating unwanted items that were not suitable for recycling, such as putting used underwear and potted plants into used clothes’ recycling banks, contrary to the spirit of recycling resources for promoting environmental protection. The entry also won the "Sustainable Consumption Reporting Award". The Gold Awards for long clips revealed the abuse of the usage of health care vouchers as if they were consumption vouchers. For example, some Chinese medicine practitioners allowed elderly to buy dried fish maw with health care vouchers, and an optometrist suggested an elder with severe cataracts to use health care vouchers to buy a pair of glasses instead of consulting an ophthalmologist in advance. The entry also won the "Grand Award".

Press Photo Category

The Gold Award in the “Press Photo Category” with the caption "Outbreak of African Swine Fever in the Year of Pig", depicted the African swine fever virus found in the samples of pigs from the Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse. The reporter captured the astonishing image of the pigs being transported to the landfill for destruction that was not only thrilling but could also educate the public to reflect the risks posed by animal husbandry and the threat to human food chains.

Campus Category

The Gold Award in the "Campus Category” analyzed the effectiveness of homeopathy, which was identified as a system of alternative medicine. The reporter verified information from different sources to find that the related prescriptions were not registered in Hong Kong and the quality was thus not guaranteed. A veteran homeopath even dismissed its efficacy on epidemic prevention while western medicine experts pointed out that vaccination is more reliable than homeopathy.

Sustainable Consumption Reporting Awards

The winning entry for the Sustainable Consumption Reporting Award in the “Text Category” was a series of reports solving the mysterious deaths of dolphins. The reporter followed the autopsy process and found that the death of dolphins was closely related to human activities. Pollutants found inside dolphins also reflected the seriousness of water pollution that endangered the dolphins’ habitat.

For the “Sustainable Consumption Reporting Award” in the “Press Photo Category”, the winning entry reflected that after festive season, glamorous decorations would become garbage and eventually end up in the landfills.

 As for the work that won the “Sustainable Consumption Reporting Award” in the “Campus Category”, it covered a school participating in the "Feed-in Tariff" program, which was not only in line with the school's environmental protection policy, but also integrated solar power generation systems into teaching to enhance students' awareness in environmental protection and their interest in science.

Reviewing previous CRRA award-winning reports is like revisiting changes in the consumption environment over the past 20 years. For example, reports on food safety, which has been the prime concern of consumers, from early coverage on fish stalls containing excessive bacteria in fresh water; carcinogens in soy sauce; to frozen meat in disguise of chilled meat, were well received. As consumers have become more health-conscious, extensive media coverage on the nutrition claims on food labels was generated, such as whether low-sugar mooncakes contained less sugar; the level of trans fats contained in food for children; and the labelling on genetically modified food. With the rise of online shopping, the media has begun to explore the food safety risks of online food shopping and the operation of food delivery apps. In the meantime, some press reports have aroused much public attention to consumer rights. From 2009 to 2010, extensive media coverage on the " inflated buildings " and the extra-large window sills drew public attention to the sales of first-hand residential properties policy, while the coverage on a private elderly-care home leaving elderly naked on the open terrace to wait for shower in 2015 had aroused public concern on the supervision and service quality of private residential care homes. Moreover, the media report in 2018 exposing the loopholes in the online security of the consumer credit data maintained by TransUnion had also caused all sectors of society to pay more attention to protecting personal privacy.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the CRRA, the Consumer Council will organize a series of celebratory events, including an exhibition on CRRA awards winning entries throughout its history at the Hong Kong News Expo from 4th November 2020. In addition, the Council will review major consumer topics on the Commercial Radio program “Beautiful Sunday” in November 2020. CRRA 20th  anniversary themed special edition souvenir masks are also offered to guests to commemorate this special occasion.

The CRRA is jointly organized by the Consumer Council, the HKJA and the HKPPA with its aim to recognise the excellence in reporting issues relating to consumer rights and it has become a renowned annual award for the industry. The adjudication panel comprises 15 representatives from professional organizations and academics in journalism, and the Council Chairman and Vice-Chairman.