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Archives: Dispatches

All Lingua Sinica Dispatches

i-CABLE Communications Limited

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i-CABLE Communications Limited (有線寬頻通訊有限公司) is a publicly listed Hong Kong media and telecommunications holding company, incorporated in 1999 above the pay-television operator Hong Kong Cable Television, which began broadcasting in 1993. The group today operates a digital terrestrial television network under the “HOY” brand, comprising channels HOY 76, HOY 77 and HOY 78, alongside a broadband service reaching more than two million households. Its news operations were historically known for adversarial journalism, including the investigative program News Lancet. That reputation shifted in December 2020, when the company fired at least 40 newsroom staff in a single morning, including the entire News Lancet team, prompting further resignations and, according to Radio Free Asia, concerns that the network was taking direction from Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong. i-CABLE is controlled by Forever Top (Asia) Limited, which itself came under the control of New World Development chairman Henry Cheng Kar-shun in 2021. Cheng has served as a Standing Committee member of the Twelfth Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a national political advisory body under the Chinese Communist Party.

Italpress

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Italpress is an Italian news agency founded in 1988 in Palermo, Sicily. It covers politics, economics, national and international news, sports and entertainment, with editorial offices in Rome and Milan and a New York bureau opened in 2023, giving it a presence across Italy, Europe and the Americas. In May 2025, Italpress signed a content-sharing deal with CCTV+ (央視國際視訊通訊社), the video news agency of China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台), which operates under the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department. In December 2025, Italpress signed a further cooperation agreement with Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency that operates as a ministerial-level body under the State Council and the Party’s Propaganda apparatus, at a Rome forum organized by Xinhua’s European regional office with support from the Chinese Embassy in Italy. At the forum, Italpress announced plans to open a bureau in Beijing in January 2026. Italpress’s website hosts a dedicated section republishing videos and articles from Xinhua.

Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

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The Committee for Safeguarding National Security (維護國家安全委員會) is a Hong Kong government body established on July 3, 2020, under Article 12 of the Hong Kong National Security Law, tasked with primary responsibility for national security affairs in the territory. It is chaired by the Chief Executive and includes the Chief Secretary, Financial Secretary, Secretary for Justice, Secretary for Security, Commissioner of Police, and heads of the Immigration and Customs departments. Under Article 15 of the law, a National Security Adviser appointed by China’s central government attends committee meetings; that role has been held by the director of the Central People’s Government’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong. According to the Department of Justice’s summary of the law, the committee’s work is not subject to oversight by any other Hong Kong institution, its proceedings are not disclosed publicly, and its decisions are not subject to judicial review, on the grounds that national security is a matter reserved to China’s central authorities. The committee has commissioned national security-themed media content, including RTHK’s Bauhinia in Bloom and the annual National Security Education Day program.

Government Public Relations Department Thailand

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Thailand’s Public Relations Department (泰國民聯廳), or PRD, is Thailand’s national information and communication agency, operating under the Prime Minister’s Office. It traces its origin to the Publicity Division, established May 3, 1933, roughly a year after Thailand’s transition from absolute to constitutional monarchy, created to build public understanding of parliamentary democracy under the new system. It took its current name on March 8, 1952. PRD operates Thailand’s state broadcaster, the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT2HD), an English-language international channel, NBT World, and Radio Thailand’s World Service, which broadcasts in six languages including English, Mandarin, and Japanese. PRD also issues press credentials to domestic and foreign journalists. Its Foreign Affairs Office describes its role as conducting international communications “to create a favorable image of the country,” and PRD holds membership in the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development, and other regional media bodies, alongside roles in ASEAN and UNESCO cultural and information programs. PRD has signed memoranda of understanding on broadcasting, news exchange, and mass communication with foreign media organizations including China’s Xinhua News Agency, the People’s Daily, and China Media Group.

Thailand Office of the Prime Minister

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The Office of the Prime Minister (สำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี) is the central cabinet-level department of the Thai government responsible for coordinating the executive branch under the prime minister, headquartered at Government House in Bangkok’s Dusit district. Its administrative secretariat component, the Office of the Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister (สำนักงานปลัดสำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี), was established in 1960 under the Prime Minister’s Office Organization Act (No. 7) B.E. 2503, absorbing functions previously held by the Department of Territorial Inspection. The US Library of Congress describes OPM as “the Central Government agency in Thailand coordinating all the executive branch agencies under the Prime Minister.” Thailand’s Public Relations Department (泰國民聯廳), the state body responsible for domestic and international government communications, operates under OPM’s authority.

Daily News Thailand

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Daily News (เดลินิวส์) is a Thai-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok. It traces its founding to June 24, 1950, when founder Saeng Hetrakul (แสง เหตระกูล) — who had run a printing operation for five years — purchased the defunct Thai edition of the Bangkok Daily Mail. The paper was relaunched in 1964 under the name “Naewna Hang Yuk Daily News” (แนวหน้าแห่งยุคเดลินิวส์), with Hetrakul’s son, Praphan Hetrakul (ประพันธ์ เหตระกูล), as editor-in-chief, publishing 16 pages for one baht per issue through Si Phraya Printing Co., Ltd. (บริษัทสี่พระยาการพิมพ์ จำกัด). It is widely cited among Thailand’s top-circulating dailies. In July 2026, Daily News was one of three Thai outlets named by the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok as having published a signed op-ed by Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jianwei.

Top News

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Top News (ท็อปนิวส์) is a Thai-language broadcast and digital news outlet owned by Top News Digital Media Co., Ltd. Its founder, Sonthiyan Chuenruthainaitham, was sentenced in 2021 to eight months in prison for his role in the 2013–2014 “Shutdown Bangkok” street protests against the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. Sonthiyan previously ran T News, a television outlet that shut down after sustaining roughly 70 million baht in losses. Prior to founding Top News, Sonthiyan’s other media holdings — T News, INN News, and Spring News, under News Network Corp — acquired a controlling stake in Nation Multimedia Group, publisher of Nation Thailand, in January 2018. Khaosod English described T News at the time as “ardently ultra-royalist and pro-junta.” In July 2026, Top News was one of three Thai outlets named by the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok as having published a signed op-ed by Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jianwei.

Curierul Național

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Curierul Național is a Romanian-language daily newspaper, first published on December 5, 1990. The paper is owned by the Păunescu family through Media Sud Publishing, and focuses on economic and financial news, covering companies, energy, agriculture, taxation, real estate, and tourism, alongside domestic politics, foreign affairs, culture, and sport. The paper describes itself as “an independent publication, with no political affiliation,” stating that its funding is “exclusively private, 100% from advertising, announcements, or commercial contracts.” In its own 35th-anniversary retrospective, the outlet describes itself as a founding member and Board of Co-Chairs member of the Belt and Road Economic Information Partnership (一帶一路經濟信息共享網絡), an economic-information-sharing network launched in Beijing in June 2019 by China’s state news agency Xinhua (新華社), and separately describes itself as a “partner of CCTV News Agency.”

Nation Thailand

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Nation Thailand is an English-language online news outlet published in Bangkok. It was founded on July 1, 1971, by its own account the first Thai-owned English-language newspaper in the country, initially under the name “The Voice of the Nation,” later shortened to The Nation. The paper published its final print edition on June 28, 2019, after 48 years, and has continued since as an online-only outlet. In January 2018, per Khaosod English, Nation Multimedia Group was acquired by Sonthiyan Chuenruthainaitham — later the founder of Top News — through a controlling stock stake held by News Network Corp (T News, INN News, Spring News). In July 2026, Nation Thailand republished a signed op-ed by Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jianwei marking the 105th anniversary of the CCP’s founding and the 51st anniversary of China-Thailand diplomatic relations.