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Kota Kinabalu: Daily Express and its sister paper, Overseas Chinese Daily News (OCDN), maintained their status as the State’s two most important papers since before the formation of Malaysia by winning  the Journalism category for both the English and Chinese media at the Kinabalu Press Awards 2024 on Sunday night.

The Daily Express’ team’s entry was for a detailed explanation of what was contained in the declassified Malaysian and Australian findings into the Double Six tragedy of 6.6.1976 that claimed the lives of 11 people, including Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens and half his Berjaya Ministers. 

The team comprised Larry Ralon, Cynthia Baga, Sohan Das, Anthea Peter, and Sherell Jeffrey. The reports were titled the “Double Six Declassified Series”. 

Both Sherell and Chief Editor James Sarda had two years earlier won the Malaysian Press Institute’s (MPI) Investigative Journalism award for a 20-week series of reports containing much new information on the crash. 

It was that initial investigative Daily Express series during the Covid pandemic that was instrumental in the new Federal Cabinet of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim agreeing to lift the secrecy surrounding the tragedy’s findings with the Australian Government following suit.

It accompanied a documentary series “Double Six: The Untold Stories” by Dexter Yeh and James Sarda, that became a hit in Youtube.

Former Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh also officially acknowledged that the Daily Express investigative series was what led to the declassification of the findings, as well as in him being cleared of any blame for the tragedy, a pain that he silently carried for 45 years.

OCDN Special Writer Siong Yin Hua won the main award for Chinese category for her feature on national secondary schools and independent secondary schools in Sabah evolving with the changing times while OCDN Chief Reporter Bong Tze Phin won Merit for the main journalism award on his report on underage brides ending up with a bleak future with little or no education. 

The Express team of Larry, Ricardo Unto, Jonathan Nicholas, Ong Yong Khin and Sherell also won Merit for News Reporting on the failed attempt to topple the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah State Government.

Daily Express’ Hayati Dzulkifli, Lagatah Toyos, Sohan and Mardinah Jikur also won Merit in the Business and Economic English category for their series “Proving RM5 Meals Are Possible”. 

 Bong won the main award in News Reporting for the Chinese category with his piece The Kinabalu Move and a merit for Environmental Journalism for Chines category with his piece “No Single-use Plastic Bags mid-2024”. 

Wong Chian Kyun also won a merit for OCDN in Sports Journalism for her piece on “Vet’s passion for cycling turned into creating records”. 

Harian Ekspres’ Siti Kazalinah Kamaludin won Merit in Entertainment, Culture and Arts Reporting in the Bahasa Malaysia category for her piece “Polemik kutipan hambar filem Sabah”, while Jenney Juanis won Merit for Business and Economic Reporting for the Bahasa Malaysia category with her piece on “Kampung Pahu Tambunan bakal jadi pengeluar parang komersial”.