Tempo and Gecko Project Collaboration Wins SOPA Award
A collaborative investigation by Tempo and The Gecko Project, together with several other media outlets, into heavy metal pollution in the waters of Obi Island, Halmahera, North Maluku, has won the Best Environmental Reporting category at The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) for Editorial Excellence 2026 in Hong Kong on Thursday, 18 June 2026. SOPA is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the highest standards of journalism.
Tempo Deputy Editor-in-Chief Bagja Hidayat said the prestigious Asian journalism award demonstrates that the media must prioritise the public interest. The coverage of heavy metal pollution around the nickel concession on Obi Island, North Maluku, encompasses multiple dimensions—social, economic, and environmental.
"We opened up the pollution issue to remind everyone that social and economic rights are interconnected with environmental rights. Therefore, this award is for you, the supporters of quality journalism," Bagja said on Thursday evening, 18 June 2026.
Meanwhile, Alon Aviram, the Gecko Project journalist who led the collaborative project, explained that the joint report on environmental pollution on Obi Island revealed that for more than a decade, mining by Harita Nickel had caused cancer-causing chemicals to seep into the waters around Obi Island. Harita is known as one of Indonesia’s largest nickel producers.
Harita’s internal test results showed that the carcinogenic substances had contaminated a village’s drinking water source. However, residents were never informed. Publicly, the company insisted the water was safe. "We also found that Harita concealed evidence of pollution in fish."
Several studies indicated hazardous levels of heavy metals in fish from local waters—one of the community’s main food sources. Despite this, the company claimed the fish was safe to eat and even altered the content of a key study to "soften" its conclusions. As a result, villagers continued to consume the fish without ever knowing the risks they faced.
The collaborative coverage also involved The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Deutsche Welle, KCIJ Newstapa, and The Guardian. The results of the collaboration can be read in articles titled "Adu Data Pencemaran Laut Obi di Sekitar Konsesi Harita" and "Mobil Bersih, Air Tercemar: Rahasia Beracun Raksasa Nikel."
In a written statement following the award, the SOPA Editorial Committee explained that the award was given in recognition of and attention to cross-media collaboration in a reporting category that is increasingly gaining public attention. "We are proud to recognise the outstanding year for journalism in the Asia-Pacific region," said James Wilson, Asia News Editor at the Financial Times and Vice-Chair of the SOPA Editorial Committee.
Wilson explained that for this year’s 28th SOPA Awards, the committee received more than 700 entries from various global, regional, and local media organisations, including those in Mandarin and Indonesian. "Topics concerning China’s politics and economy, as well as its regional and global influence, were prominent themes in many of this year’s winning and finalist entries."
The SOPA Awards 2026 were managed by the SOPA Awards Administration Panel led by veteran journalist Chris Yeung. A total of 115 journalists, former journalists, and journalism academics from around the world participated as volunteer judges this year. Harry Surjadi assisted as Chair of the Judging Panel for the Indonesian language category.
At the awards, another Indonesian media outlet, Project Multatuli, won two awards: the regional Best Technology Reporting category for a series on artificial intelligence (AI), and the Best Indonesian Language Report category for a series on state apparatus violence in the country.