Second Annual Internet Election News Award Ceremony and Seminar Held

= Selected and awarded fair election reports made together with the voters =

The Internet Election News Deliberation Commission (IENDC) hosted the Second Annual Internet Election News Award Ceremony at the Seoul Press Center on June 22, recognizing media organizations that contributed to the policy-focused campaign culture during the 19th presidential election. 

Second Annual Internet Election News Award Ceremony winners were selected by a panel of 5 experts from the IENDC who judged 36 news reports from 33 reporters nominated by media organizations and the public, and they were judged based on if their election reporting was voter-centered, its utilization of the various characteristics of internet media, originality, and fairness.

The winners were as follows: 

• Top award: JoongAng Ilbo (Reporter Jung Seun-eun and eight others, ''People Moving the Presidential Candidates'' and 2 other news reports) 

• Nationwide category: SBS (Reporter Kwon Ji-yoon and seven others, ‘Presidential Candidates Virtual Policy Battle’ report) 

• Independent Internet media category: Newstapa (Reporter Park Jang-suk and seven others, ‘Testing Candidates’ Policies and Analyzing Candidates’ Teams’ series of reports)

Internet election news awards have been running since 2016 to promote fair election campaigning and encourage citizens to vote. In particular on this occasion, voters were able to nominate reports themselves so the will of the people can be reflected.

In addition, after the ceremony a seminar was held together with the Korean Society for Journalism & Communication Studies (KSJCS), which evaluated the 19th presidential election campaign and reviewed the deliberation system, followed by a discussion on ways to improve the system for smooth evaluation of internet media in future elections.