A top Party official urged the Chinese press on Monday to put greater emphasis on the development of Internet media to better report news at home and abroad.

The Internet media should be considered as important as the conventional media, said Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Li made the remarks at a ceremony in Beijing to mark the country's 11th Journalists' Day.

He also demanded that governments at all levels in the country make it easier for journalists to conduct news reporting, and called on the media to strengthen ethics education for its employees to put an end to false news.

The ceremony witnessed the awarding of 277 pieces of works of the China News Prize and 20 winners of the Changjiang Taofen Journalism Awards, the top domestic prizes for Chinese journalists.

China Daily was a big winner in this year's China News Prize, claiming three of the 42 first prizes, including one business report on anti-dumping, a comment on Uygur separatist Rebiya Kadeer and a page design on Sept 9, 2009.

The country's biggest English language newspaper also won one second prize and three third prizes.