Sing Tao Daily

The Sing Tao Daily (Chinese: 星島日報) also known as Sing Tao Jih Pao is Hong Kong's oldest and second-largest Chinese language newspaper. It is owned by Sing Tao News Corporation, of which Charles Ho Tsu Kwok (Chinese: 何柱國) is chairman. Its English language sister paper is The Standard. The Sing Tao also maintains the news website singtao.com.

Sing Tao Daily
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Sing Tao Newspaper Group Limited
Founded1938
Political alignmentPro-Beijing (historically Pro-Taiwan)
Headquarters3 Tung Wong Road, Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong
Overseas: 188 Lafayette Street, New York City 10013, U.S.
Websitehttp://www.singtao.com
http://std.stheadline.com
Sing Tao Daily
Traditional Chinese星島日報
Simplified Chinese星岛日报

The paper has 16 overseas editions, published by nine overseas news bureaus and circulated in 100 cities in China and abroad.

History
Passage car with Sing Tao News Corporation livery

Sing Tao Daily is the oldest Chinese-language daily newspaper in Hong Kong, having commenced publication on 1 August, 1938.[1]

The first overseas edition of the paper was launched in 1963 in San Francisco, where the group’s first overseas office was set up in May 1964.[1] In 1965, the company established offices in New York City and Los Angeles, followed by Toronto (1978), Vancouver, Calgary, London, and Sydney.

In 1998, members of the management team were found guilty of falsifying circulation numbers of sister newspaper The Standard. The Hong Kong government's decision not to charge the chairwoman Sally Aw for reasons of "public benefit" turned into a scandal for the Hong Kong legal system and was quoted as a reason for the anti-"Article 23" march on 1 July 2003. The following year, 1999, financial problems forced Aw to sell her Sing Tao Holdingsstock.

Until 2002, the parent company of Sing Tao Daily was Sing Tao Holdings. Since then it has been Sing Tao News Corporation.

Sing Tao's Toronto edition is partly owned by Star Media Group, the publisher of the Toronto Star, a Torstar Corporation company.[2]

Political stance

The Sing Tao has a long pro-government history. Before the reunification of Hong Kong with China, it supported the Kuomintang and British Hong Kong Government; and once Hong Kong was transferred of sovereignty and turned into a special administrative region, it turned support to the Beijing government.[3][4][5][6][7]

Charles Ho, chairman of Sing Tao News Corp Ltd., and his predecessor Sally Aw, were both members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a select group of the Chinese Communist Party’s loyal friends and allies.[8]

Chinese Communist Party influence

According to a 2013 report by Center for International Media Assistance, "The Long Shadow of Chinese Censorship: How the Communist Party’s Media Restrictions Affect News Outlets Around the World," a number of patterns emerged in recent decades that signalled Sing Tao was under influence or directly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party: management and owners began practicing “self-censorship”, “high-risk” contributors were being terminated, and high turnover rates increased as journalists left due to an “unpalatable editorial policy.”[9]

Editorial coverage also shifted noticeably since the 1990s, notes the report:

  • Avoiding or limiting coverage of politically sensitive topics such as 1989 military crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, Tibet, and Taiwanese independence.
  • Shifting critical opinions from front to back pages.
  • Choosing “politically correct” rhetoric.
  • Reducing investigative journalism in favor of soft news or a simple accounting of emerging events.

A 2001 report on Chinese media censorship by the Jamestown Foundation cited Sing Tao as one of four major overseas Chinese newspapers directly or indirectly controlled by Beijing.[10] “Four major Chinese newspapers are found in the U.S.—World Journal, Sing Tao Daily, Ming Pao Daily News, and The China Press," reads the report, “Of these four, three are either directly or indirectly controlled by the government of Mainland China, while the fourth (run out of Taiwan) has recently begun bowing to pressure from the Beijing government.”

The point of view on the influence of Chinese Communist Party, was also stated by another author John Manthorpe in his book Claws of the Panda.[11]

See also

References
  1. Sing Tao Holdings Ltd Annual Report 2002, Profile of the Group
  2. Blackwell, Tom (3 December 2020). "Inside Canada's Chinese-language media: 'Beijing has become the mainstream,' says ex-Sing Tao editor". National Post. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  3. "Sing Tao Daily". Chinese Advertising Agencies, Inc. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  4. "Editor Dismissed Over Pro-Beijing Edits, Say Sources". Canada Free Press. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  5. Yu, Jess Macy (6 October 2014). "Hong Kong Newspapers, Pro- and Anti-Beijing, Weigh In on Protests". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  6. "Beijing's 'Invisible Hand' at Work Ahead of Hong Kong Election". Radio Free Asia. 7 February 2017. Archived from the original on 12 August 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  7. Huang, Zheping (2 August 2016). "China is using Hong Kong's media to broadcast its smear campaigns". Quartz. Archived from the original on 13 April 2020. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 August 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2020.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. Cook, Sarah (22 October 2013). "The Long Shadow of Chinese Censorship: How the Communist Party's Media Restrictions Affect News Outlets Around the World" (PDF). Center for International Media Assistancee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  10. Duzhe, Mei. China Brief Vol1, Issue 10. "How China's Government is Attempting to Control Chinese Media in America" Archived 6 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine "Jamestown Foundation." 2001
  11. John Manthorpe (5 January 2019). Claws of the Panda: Beijing's Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada. Cormorant Books. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-77086-539-6.
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