Sing Pao Daily News

Sing Pao Daily News
Type Daily newspaper
Owner(s) Carson Yeung
Website www.singpao.com

Sing Pao Daily News (Chinese: 成報; pinyin: Chéng Bào) is one of the oldest Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong and was first published on 1 May 1939 by the Sing Pao Newspaper Company Limited (成報報刊有限公司 Pinyin: Chéngbào Bàokān Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī). It was initially published once every three days, and later once a day. According to Sing Pao, it circulates about 100,000 copies every day, with over 220,000 readers (as of 2003).

Sections

Sing Pao consists of various sections:

Sing Pao especially targets teenagers and it has many school subscriptions. It has an editorial section for students, where young readers can summit their essays by post, fax or email. Therefore, readers have a chance to share and learn from the essays of others. In addition, readers can get all sorts of useful information on education in Hong Kong, ranging from kindergarten to tertiary institutions at the Teacher and Student Corner. There are some articles about further studies overseas as well.

To give readers a clearer picture of what is happening in this constantly changing world as well as Hong Kong, Sing Pao also provides Weekly International News Highlights and a Corner about the Hong Kong Legislative Council. In this section, readers not only get a quick overview of current affairs happening around the world but also an opportunity to express their views.

Improvement in technology

To meet the advancement of the modern technology and the demands of IT people, Sing Pao introduced the PDA Channel. By utilising this channel, people using PDAs can download the most up-to-date news (including politics, current affairs, international affairs, entertainment, and even horse-racing information) from the official Sing Pao website. It is convenient to readers who often browse news online, and it can further enlarge the circle of possible users.

Financial problems

Sing Pao experienced a change of ownership in 2000 due to a decline in sales. In 2000, the StarEastNet Limited (東魅網) and China Strategic Holdings Limited (中策集團) bought Sing Pao and announced that the reporting style would remain the same, but the main focus would shift to entertainment news and advertisements to satisfy public interest. Furthermore, chief executive officer Ng-Ching has been targeting the Chinese market to properly expand its service as an advertisement agent. But the date to initiate the circulation of Sing Pao is unknown at this time.

However, in 2002, there was another change of ownership. Sun Media (陽光文化媒體集團) bought Sing Pao Media Group (including Sing Pao) for 1 billion (??). The company promised that they would re-structure the organisation of Sing Pao and targeted the reduction of its loss in recent years until a balanced budget was reached.

The newspaper was under financial troubles again in early 2006, during which it was unable to pay the salaries of various employees on time. Eventually, in May 2004, twenty-three of its reporters—led by Kwok Yin-Ling (?) (郭燕玲), the assistant chief editor—took sick leave together as a measure/protest against the management. However, no agreement could be reached and the reporters resigned in the end.[1] Some top-level executives (and board members?) have resigned after this incident. As of June 2006, at least 60 employees have left Sing Pao, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority is suing Sing Pao because of all the MPF Sing Pao hasn't paid, and the Labour Department is suing Sing Pao because of the unpaid wages.

The Labour Department won and on 3 January 2007, Sing Pao was fined HK$4200. The media and the head of the Labour Department criticised the punishment as being too light. In face of the criticisms, the magistrate reopened the case on his own initiative the next day, as authorised by law (Chapter 227, Section 104(5)). With the Magistrates' Courts, there is no functus officio; the magistrate can reopen his own case within 14 days. This led to other people criticising the magistrate's decision to reopen, saying it gives the impression of popular and executive interference in the judiciary. [2]

Reliability and criticism

Although Sing Pao has a motto of reporting the truth fairly and objectively, it has faced criticism too. On 4 February 2003, a reader complained to the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) that Sing Pao published the full name, address, and picture of a victim in their paper, which violated their personal privacy.

Near the end of the Hong Kong Chief Executive election, 2012, Johnny Lau Yui-siu (劉銳紹), a pundit who wrote a critique of both Henry Tang and Leung Chun-ying for the Sing Pao Daily News, complained that the journal of "unfairly editing and distorting his column", turning his article into one favouring Leung.[3] Lau said that his intended piece was entitled "Neither Tang nor Leung is worthy of support". In the piece, he opined that "supporting either party would not be conducive to the situation", but the published version read: "If there is really a need to make a choice, then, let's choose Mr Leung Chun-ying." Lau alleged that his conclusion was similarly distorted: "neither Mr Tang nor Mr Leung is worthy of support. They do not deserve sympathy either" was changed to read: "Mr Tang is not worthy of support. Nor does he deserve sympathy." Ngai Kai-kwong, editor-in-chief of Sing Pao said: "the editing might have been too carelessly done." He denied the paper had exercised censorship, nor that it had come under pressure from the central government's liaison office.[4] Citing format and budget reasons, Sing Pao dropped Lau's column alone in April. However, the HKJA rebutted this explanation, and suggested that the cause was Lau's mourning of a deceased Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi in his column, which triggered a blockage of access to Sing Pao's online version in mainland.[5]

See also

External links

References