Assert authority. That’s a Hong Kong newspaper editor’s idea of damage control after his decision to swap a main story at literally the eleventh hour angered his staff.
In a statement published to Ming Pao’s website on Tuesday, chief Chong Tien Siong said that the publication “always doesn’t take sides,” and that the chief editor has the “power and responsibilities to make lead story changes.” Chong added that the “June Fourth Incident” article was published without corrections in the same issue.
Chong was responding to concerns raised by his staff.
The staff of Ming Pao—a respected Chinese language broadsheet known for its serious reporting—had asked their chief editor to explain his arbitrary decision to replace the top story in a statement on Monday.
Earlier Sunday evening, the editorial team agreed that a story on just released Canadian embassy memos that deal with the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, which reporters had spent days working on, would be the lead article. Although Chong was on leave, he sat in the editorial meeting but didn’t oppose anything.
However, at about 11:00 p.m. (10:00 a.m. Eastern time), Chong insisted that a story on Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group be made the lead instead. The Canadian memo Tiananmen story was instead pushed to page three on Monday’s paper.
