Sing Pao Daily News - Reliability and Criticism

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. 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. 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.