The Sing Tao Daily also known as Sing Tao Jih Pao is Hong Kong's second largest Chinese language newspaper. It is owned by Sing Tao News Corporation Limited, of which Charles Ho Tsu Kwok is the chairman. Its English language sister paper is The Standard. The Sing Tao also maintains the news website singtao.com. The paper has 16 overseas editions, published by nine overseas news bureaus and circulated in 100 cities in China and abroad.
History
The parent company of the Sing Tao Daily, since 2002 was Sing Tao News Corporation and is based in Hong Kong. The Sing Tao Daily was first published in the same year. After establishing its overseas base office in New York City in 1965, the Sing Tao set up International News Centres in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, London, and Sydney. In all, the company now has twenty-two offices globally. 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 million's march on 1 July 2003. Shortly after, financial problems forced Aw to sell out her stock in Sing Tao Holdings in 1999. Sing Tao's Toronto edition is partially owned by Star Media Group, the publisher of the Toronto Star, a Torstar Corporation company.
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.” Editorial coverage also shifted noticeably since the 1990s, notes the report:
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. “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 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.
