2009 Judging Rules

2008-12-29 15:23:28

The 5th China International Press Photo Contest (CHIPP2008) is to be held in Shanghai¡¯s Songjiang District from March 21 to 25, 2009. Thirteen professionals who are highly regarded in the photo circles in China and from around the world will get together and decide the winning entries.

JUDGING PANEL AND WORKIGN STAFF

1. The Judging Panel
The Panel consists of thirteen members, including one chairman and twelve jury members. Among them, seven are from abroad, five from mainland China and one from the areas of Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan. 
The Panel also has one executive secretary and other staff working at the scene.

2. Responsibility
    
The Chairman presides over the judging process, coordinates juries and organizes discussion and voting. Jury members select the award-winning entries. Executive secretary does not participate the discussion session or voting. He or she is in charge of coordinating the judging process, interpreting and etc. Other staff does not participate in the discussion session or voting. They are in charge of all contest-related affairs, like operating the projector, counting votes, and are obliged to provide entry caption when is required by the judges.

CATEGORIES

Participants are invited to compete in eight categories for one gold, one silver, one bronze award as well as two awards of excellence. There are awards for both singles and stories in each category. Above all, there will be one prime prize called the Picture of the Year selected. The 8 categories are:

Daily Life (DL & DLS)
War & Disaster News (WDN & WDNS)
General News (GN & GNS)
Economy, Science and Technology News (ESTN & ESTNS)
Nature & Environment News(NEN & NENS)
Arts, Culture & Entertainment News(ACEN & ACENS)
Sports News(SN & SNS)
Portraits & People in the News (POPN & POPNS)

JUDGING
  
All who take part in judging and related work is required to treat the judging process with utmost secrecy. No information is allowed to reveal to the public before the press conference announcing results by the organizing committee. The committee will also arrange time for media interviews when time is right.
Judging is carried out both on digital or digitalized photos and prints by juries through discussion, anonymous e-voting, voting by show of hands and other procedures. The process goes as follows:

Selecting gold, silver, bronze and awards of excellence

1.Top 5 entries for each award

Juries select 5 best pieces from all entries in each catalog within three days in three rounds. Juries are allowed to discuss throughout the process except for the first round. They are neither in charge of changing entries from one category to another, nor picking photos out from stories to participate single award category.

In the first round, juries select entries through electronic voting system without any discussion or photo caption. The number of choice is unlimited. Any entry (single and stories) with four favorable votes will go to the next round.

In the second round, juries are to pick out around 5 entries (singles and stories) for each catalog by voting on an electronic system. Any entry with no less than 7 votes will proceed to the next round. Juries are free to air opinions during the discussing session, but he or she should not require other juries to conform. They may require seeing photo captions.

In the third round, if more than 5 entries (single and stories) enter this round, juries should vote to decide the top 5 through electronic system or voting by a show of hands after thorough discussion, each jury with 5 votes only.

2.Final award winners

Juries select the final award winning photos in each category and the Picture of the Year Award. Except the latter, all awards are allowed to be vacant.

In the first round, juries select three from the five entries (single and stories) through discussion and voting, each jury with three votes. The three selected entries enter the next round competing for gold, silver and bronze award, and the rest two entries win Awards of Excellence.

In the second round, juries select two from the three entries (single and stories) to enter the next round, each jury with two votes. The one with the least votes win the Bronze Award.

In the third round, juries select one from the final two entries, each jury with one vote. The entry with a majority of favorable votes wins the Gold Award, the other the Silver Award.

After deciding awards for each category, every gold medalist for each category singles is natural candidates for the Picture of the Year. And the juries are in charge of selecting one photo from each of the gold-award-winning stories to be the candidates for the Picture of the Year. In total, there will be no more than 16 photos to be the final competitors for the Picture of the Year Award.

Selecting the Picture of the Year

Judging is carried out on prints. The Award is not allowed to be vacant. The Award is chosen from singles and single pieces from photo stories which are taken in 2008. Juries select the prize-winning entry through discussion and then voting by a show of hands. Each jury member is free to air views on each entry. The entry with a majority of votes (7 or more) wins the award.

RESULTS

The CHIPP Organizing Committee will not interfere in the judging process, and it will accept and respect the judging results. Results by the jury are the final decision. The Committee does not take any appeals.

The Organizing Committee and the Judging Panel insist authenticity from entries and require avoidance of conflict interest from its members and working staff. If any participant is found in violation of the judging rules, he or she will be disqualified from the contest. The same is true of any participants who are in the breach of professional ethics, and their names will be announced to the public. Members of the Organizing Committee and the Judging Panel and their lineal relatives are not allowed to participate in the contest.

Results are confidential until being announced by the chairman of the judging panel in an official press conference. All awards will be displayed on print media or websites for two weeks. If there is no objection proceeds in between, the Organizing Committee will formally issue the awards. Prize-winning photo(s) against judging rules will be disqualified from the contest. Participants violating professional ethics will be disqualified from the contest and announced publicly after verification.