China honored a group of outstanding reporters on Friday ahead of its Journalist Festival, to fall on Saturday, with senior Party leader Li Changchun present.

Chinese journalists did a very good job this year, covering a series of important events including the May 12 earthquake, the Beijing Olympics and Shenzhou-7 manned space program, said Li, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, at the ceremony.

He hoped reporters would continue working hard with a stronger sense of responsibility, to express the people's voice and exercise supervision of the media while serving the country and promoting socialist values.

They should work to protect people's right to know, to express, to participate and to supervise, he said.

Both traditional and new media should improve their reporting ability, he said.

Prizes were granted to journalists winning the China News Award and Changjiang Taofen Award, the country's top two journalism awards.

Six of the winners spoke at the ceremony, attended by about 500 editors and reporters from around the nation.

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2008)