The Society for Online News Providers (SONP), working with partners, has presented the 11th Digital News Excellence Awards 2025, which are aimed at promoting online media and are dedicated to creating and developing the online news industry by producing quality digital news that meets journalism, ethics and professional conduct standards. A ceremony has been held to announce the results, present awards and honorary plaques.
This year, 22 news agencies submitted a total of 179 entries for the "Digital News Excellence Awards 2025", a number that continues to grow year after year.
The awards are divided into news categories:
• Best Investigative Online News or Documentary (Investigative News & News Feature) - 22 entries
• Best Online News from Social Media Agenda - 20 entries
• Best Online News Development from Social Media Topics - 18 entries
• Best Online News in video clip format - 24 entries
• Best Online News in infographic format - 32 entries
• Best Online Photojournalism - 28 entries
This year, we are honoured to have partners who participate in and prioritise the enhancement and development of the digital news industry, as well as promote and encourage journalists dedicated to creating and developing the news industry.
Increasing the area for "Quality Digital News with Value" in line with journalism standards, ethics, and professional conduct has supported the Best Consumer News category with 21 entries, sponsored by the Consumer Organisation Council, and 13 Best Fact Check and Verification awards, hosted by Cofact (Thailand).
Thai PBS has been recognised with several Digital News Excellence Awards for 2025:
• Best Investigative Online News or Documentary Category
• 1st Prize
• Organisation: Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS)
• Title: Investigative News Series "Upstream of the Kok River - Nam Sai": Transboundary Pollution
Content links:
https://www.thaipbs.or.th/news/content/350938
https://www.thaipbs.or.th/news/content/350954
https://www.thaipbs.or.th/news/content/351096
https://www.thaipbs.or.th/news/content/352969
https://www.thaipbs.or.th/news/content/354006
https://www.thaipbs.or.th/news/content/354203
• Best Online News Development from Social Media Topics
• 1st Prize
• Organisation: Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS)
• Title: Traces of the Rural Doctors' Mission to the City, Reflecting Problems in the Thai Bureaucracy
Content links:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JUNVrsnZz/
True Story! Reflecting the Crisis of Thai Government Procurement
https://theactive.thaipbs.or.th/data/procurement-problems
Rural Doctors' Mission to the City: Evidence of Loss Reduction Operations amid the COVID-19 Crisis
https://theactive.thaipbs.or.th/data/rural-doctor-covid
From Rural Doctors to the City… to the Investigation Desk
https://theactive.thaipbs.or.th/data/rural-doctor
Public Forum: Case Study: 'Dr. Suphat's' Serious Disciplinary Violations: Corruption Or the Problem of Good Governance in the Thai Bureaucracy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHfzb_MXzIM
Honourable Mentions
• Organisation: Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS)
• Entry Title: 'English Proficiency': The More You Promote It, the More It Declines | How to Boost English Proficiency among Thais.
• Content Link: www.thaipbs.or.th/now/content/2901
• Best Consumer News Category
• 1st Prize
• Organisation: Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS)
• Entry Title: 23 Provinces: Bus-Free Cities: How Long Until We Have One?
• Content link: https://theactive.thaipbs.or.th/data/local-bus-hope
• Best Fact Check and Verification Award Category
• 1 Outstanding Award
• Organisation: Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS)
• Entry Title: Verified: Viral Clip of Royal Thai Army Clashes during the Last 5 Minutes: Identified and confirmed as archive footage.
• Content Link: www.thaipbs.or.th/verify/content/4730
• Honourable Mentions
• Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS)
• Entry title: Verified: Free HPV Vaccine Clinic page turns out to be a cut-and-paste of a fake logo and document, but carried a Blue checkmark
• Content link: www.thaipbs.or.th/verify/content/2411
The judging panel was honoured to receive comments and suggestions on this year's entries. Dr. Mana Trirayapiwat, Vice President for Student Affairs at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, stated, "This year's entries are diverse and demonstrate the dedication of the participating news agencies. Many of the stories have very interesting themes and they aren't just one-off stories. They are presented as a serit the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, stated, "This year's entries are diverse and demonstrate the dedication of the participating news agencies. Many of the stories have very interesting themes and they aren't just one-off stories. They are presented as a series, especially the investigative stories."
Ms. N. Rinee Rueangnu, President of the Thai Journalists Association, stated, "A very interesting category this year is the Social Issues category. We can highlight minor social issues and expose them to the public, letting them know what still needs to be addressed.”
Mr. Apisin Trungkanon, Chief Product Officer of Pantip.com, said, “This year was another difficult year to judge. For the video clip category, production was given more weight than the issue, as filming and editing were challenging, making the story interesting and engaging to the end. This year, the infographic category was mostly timeline graphics. So, when we saw the images, we only needed to spend 5
