 | |
| Type | Online-only news |
|---|---|
| Editor-in-chief | Chen Ching-wai[1] |
| Founded | 2014 (2014) |
| Political alignment | Pro-Beijing[2] |
| Language | Chinese English |
| Website | www |
Orange News (Chinese:橙新聞) is a Hong Kong-based news website established in 2014. The site is owned bySino United Publishing and funded by theHong Kong Liaison Office, with its editorial stance generally regarded aspro-Beijing.[2]
Orange News was established bySino United Publishing under its subsidiary, Cloud Connect Technology (Chinese:雲通科技), in December 2014, targeting both residents of theGreater Bay Area and theHong Kong diaspora.[3] Mass media scholar Ryan Ho Kilpatrick considered that the name "Orange News" is meant to position the outlet in opposition to thepro-democratic mediaApple Daily.[4]Orange News also owns multiple subsidiaries, including theYouTube channels Warm Talking (圍爐), Why Do We Dream (發緊夢), and All About Money (搵錢呢啲嘢), theFacebook page "Culture Is..."(文化本事), and theTikTok channel "Hong Kong Drifters Have A Say" (港漂有話說).[5] In April 2015,Next Magazine reported thatOrange News was controlled by theHong Kong Liaison Office, as investigative reports revealed that Sino United Publishing was owned by a shell company, Guangdong New Culture Development (廣東新文化事業發展), which was fully owned by the Liaison Office and held 99.99% and 88.44% shares inTa Kung Pao andWen Wei Po, respectively.[6][7] The website was also funded by the Liaison Office.[8] Following this revelation, media outlets widely referredOrange News as being under the control of the Liaison Office.[9]
In October 2015,Apple Daily suedOrange News for reproducing two articles related to an undercover investigation on unlicensed cosmetic treatments.[10] By February 2016, a special report on Hong Kong online media bySuper Media [zh] listedOrange News as not among the top 20 most active online media outlets in Hong Kong, and it ranked 1,174th among Hong Kong websites according toAlexa Internet.[11] In October 2018, theHong Kong Journalists Association publicly criticizedOrange News for publishing articles with biased commentary, labeling it as a propaganda outlet that influences public opinion, while also expressing concern that its stable government funding allowed it to outcompete independent outlets and monopolize voices in the media.[12][13]
In January 2023, during thenational security trial of formerStand News chief editorChung Pui-kuen, the prosecution cited opinion pieces fromOrange News that criticizedStand News for its editorial stance, which allegedly "glorified violent protests" and "violated national security laws".[14][15] In November 2024, Warm Talking produced a short film titledBirdcage (鳥籠), coinciding with the national security trial ofApple Daily founderJimmy Lai, where the film was perceived as satirical towardApple Daily and was reported on by otherstate-owned media, includingTa Kung Pao.[5]
The editorial stance ofOrange News is perceived aspro-Beijing,[2] withBloomberg describing it as "propaganda" planted by the Chinese government in Hong Kong.[16] Fu Chun-kit, a non-executive director ofOrange News' parent company Cloud Connect Technology, described their journalists only as "having a sense ofpatriotism" but "maintaining neutrality", stating "they would not publish content according to external editorial instructions".[17] Political commentatorMartin Oei [zh] criticizedOrange News for its close political ties, stating that "people in Hong Kong who know its background do not read it";[18] whileLee Bat-fong [zh] fromApple Daily noted thatOrange News was allowed to cut the queue and interviewZhang Xiaoming before other media at a press conference in 2015, and they distributed numerous souvenirs at theHong Kong Book Fair, raising questions about their editorial independence and suggesting that their financial advantages create unfair competition with other non-governmental outlets.[19] Kilpatrick, in his analysis of articles published byOrange News in the aftermath of the2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, observed that the political commentaries often "echoedCCP language", while the news reports tended to emphasize or omit critical context in favor of the government and pro-establishment political parties.[4] He also found thatOrange News' articles often lack diverse sourcing, with some stories coming directly from government press releases or the official state mediaChina Today.[4]
A 2022 study conducted jointly byCity University of Hong Kong andHong Kong Polytechnic University found thatOrange News was one of the online media outlets that maintained a relatively neutral tone when reporting onethnic minorities in Hong Kong, with only 0.3% of the articles containing racist or stereotypical language.[20]