INSIDE CANADA'S CHINESE-LANGUAGE NEWS MEDIA.
`Beijing has become the mainstream,' ex-sing Tao editor says
At most Canadian news organizations, the opinion column would have barely raised an eyebrow.
Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo had just died of liver cancer while still effectively imprisoned by Beijing, seven years after he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Victor Ho, then editor-inchief of the Vancouver edition of Sing Tao, the most popular Chinese-language newspaper in Canada, wrote that Liu's persecution violated universal values of decency and human rights.
But some of Ho's co-workers were taken aback.
“My colleagues treated it like it was very dangerous,” he recalled about that 2017 column. “They fear so-called political consequences, like `You cannot go back to Hong Kong, you cannot go back to China.' And maybe the psychological threat from the huge government influence, huge government shadows here from China … To me this is really sad.”
In fact, the commentary was at odds with the newspaper's usual coverage of Chinese affairs, material that is supplied by Sing Tao headquarters in Hong Kong and is consistently pro-beijing.
And the editor says the paper's slant is typical of most Chinese ethnic news outlets in Canada, whose reporting on the region can seem under the sway of an authoritarian regime continents away.
Ho says that approach stems largely from the biases of owners eager to please the People's Republic for business reasons, not direct pressure from Beijing. But they'll dutifully report on events at local Chinese consulates where journalists are fed a diet of snack food and state “propaganda,” he says.
“Beijing has become the mainstream now in Chinese newspapers or magazine here,” he said. “I cannot find a real independent and non- partisan newspaper here reporting Chinese affairs. I cannot find one for you.”
The language barrier makes the industry something of a black box for non- Chinese speaking Canadians. But Ho is retired now after 13 years at the helm of Sing Tao Vancouver, and is offering a unique insider's view of the industry.
His comments came in an interview shortly after the House of Commons passed a Conservative motion calling on the Liberal government to produce a plan for combating Chinese interference here.
The Hong Kong native appeared himself recently at the Commons' Canada- China relations committee, urging government action on the issue. That should include implementing a law similar to Australia's to combat overseas interference, he said, and legislation requiring “agents” of countries like China, including sympathetic media, to register as foreign missions.
In his own act of resistance, Ho has begun a YouTube channel, Media Analytica, that offers up more independent views of China.
His words resonate with Gloria Fung, an outspoken, Toronto-based advocate for democracy in Hong Kong and critic of the Chinese regime.
Last year, Fung says Chinese- language Fairchild TV suddenly stopped interviewing her for its news programs, amid rumours she had essentially been blacklisted.
A source familiar with the broadcaster's inner workings said reporters have indeed been told to avoid Fung, and generally not to interview organizers of rallies in support of Hong Kong protesters.
“A lot of us feel uncomfortable,” said the person, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals. “A lot of us do support the protests in Hong Kong. We know the freedom of speech in the Chinese community is getting tighter.”
But a Fairchild TV spokesman scoffed at the suggestion it was avoiding criticism of China, saying that “what we strive to provide is balanced news coverage.”
As for Fung, the spokesman said she hasn't been blacklisted and “when appropriate, Fairchild has covered events with which she is associated.”
Regardless, the activist has put together a list of different ways she believes the CCP uses media here to exert its influence, including indirect pressure on news outlets from advertisers and community groups allied with Beijing, and the availability of state- run CCTV channels on Canadian cable television.
“We have to understand the nature of this Chinese regime we are dealing with,”
Fung said. “They are brainwashing their nationals with propaganda, with fake news … Why should we allow them to land on Canadian shores?”
Sing Tao is Hong Kong's second-biggest Chinese-language newspaper and has branches in Canada, the U.S., Australia and the U.K. It's owned by Charles Ho, a businessman closely allied with the Chinese regime (but no relation to the retired editor). The proprietor is even a member of the influential People's Political Consultative Conference.
The Toronto edition is half-owned by the Toronto Star.
Victor Ho said he always had freedom to report Canadian, U.S. and non- China world news objectively in the paper's first 10 pages.
But coverage of China in the rest of Sing Tao usually came straight from head offices in Hong Kong and neighbouring Shenzhen.
When “sensitive” issues arose locally, he said he tried his best to “break the red line” and provide objective coverage. He's unsure if his successor at Sing Tao in B.C. is doing the same.
He said he never received a call from the consulate general in Vancouver ordering any particular coverage, but Chinese-language media were regularly invited to attend the mission for briefings, often accompanied by a “light buffet.”
“They will approach you, especially if you are the editor-in-chief or manager of the paper. They will try to contact you, chat with you.”
Ho said he saw the diplomats' offerings as propaganda and not newsworthy and gave them scant coverage. Not so his colleagues at other news outlets.
“Most of the papers or the stations, they will buy it,” he said.
The pro-beijing perspective is amplified now by free newspapers distributed to the Chinese- Canadian community, some of which Ho suspects are actually being funded — directly or indirectly — by the People's Republic.
He worries about the impact of all this on the 1.8-million- strong community, making people less likely to challenge Beijing or push for a stronger Canadian stance toward China.
“At the end of the day,” Ho said, “it will hurt our country.”
FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN THE CHINESE COMMUNITY IS GETTING TIGHTER.