New | Sale of stake in outspoken Beijing News may turn it into ‘propaganda mouthpiece’

Beijing’s municipal propaganda department has taken over a stake in the city’s outspoken Beijing News daily newspaper, ending a decade of partial ownership by the Southern Media Group in which the paper did not shy away from reporting controversial issues.

The Publicity Department of the Beijing Municipal Communist Party Committee has acquired a 49 per cent stake in the daily publication from the Southern Media Group for 294 million yuan (HK$374 million), according to an internal agreement dated Friday.

The sale of the stake marks a complete handover of the paper to institutions with conservative agendas, observers say. The other stakeholder in the Beijing News is the conservative Guangming Daily, a leading party mouthpiece.

For Wen Yunchao, a New York-based media commentator, the sale brought to a close the long-running efforts by Beijing authorities to bring the outspoken paper under control. “This is clearly a reaction to the deregulation of the media, or even a step back,” he said. “The role of the media returns to that of a propaganda mouthpiece.”