All Lingua Sinica Dispatches
RCS Media Group is one of Italy’s leading multimedia publishing groups, operating across newspapers, magazines, digital media, books, television, and advertising. The group also organises major sporting events. Founded in 1927, the group — which claims a commitment to freedom, fairness, and pluralism — operates in Italy and Spain. RCS publishes the daily newspapers Corriere della Sera, La Gazzetta dello Sport, El Mundo, Marca, and Expansión.
Il Corriere della Sera was founded on March 5, 1876, by journalist Eugenio Torelli Viollier in Milan. The Milan-based daily covers politics, economics, world news, culture, sports, and entertainment. Since 1974, Corriere has been owned by RCS MediaGroup, a publicly traded multimedia publishing company. According to its mission statement, the newspaper aims to be “responsible, impartial, complete, accurate and understandable information” and be “free from any political and economic conditioning.”
The Propaganda Office of the Baoshan Committee of the CCP is the office under the Chinese Communist Party leadership in the city, which is located about 60 kilometers from China’s border with Myanmar. The office is charged with ensuring media outlets “strictly observe propaganda requirements” and “firmly observe correct guidance of public opinion,” particularly on sensitive issues, while transmitting content priorities from higher party levels. It controls the party’s mouthpiece newspaper, the Baoshan Daily (保山日报).
Thai Rath, Thailand’s largest-circulation newspaper, was founded on December 25, 1962, by Kampol Wacharapol, though its origins trace to his earlier publications. Wacharapol first launched the weekly Khaw Phaph (Photo News) on January 9, 1950, which became a daily in 1952 before being shut down by the military government in 1958. He then operated Siang Ang Thong from May 1959 until launching Thai Rath proper. The newspaper claims a circulation exceeding one million copies daily and maintains its position as Thailand’s best-selling Thai-language publication with a reported 46% share of online news consumption. UNESCO recognized Kampol Wacharapol in 2017 as “a person of global significance in media and education.” The company expanded into digital media with thairath.co.th and launched Thai Rath TV in 2014. The Wacharapol family continues to control the media empire through Wacharapol Co. Ltd, with operations spanning print, digital, television, and related businesses including cosmetics and logistics ventures launched in 2021.
The Global Youth Leadership Forum (GYLF) is a Spain-based international organization established in 2016 that positions itself as “the main global forum for inter-generational dialogue on the planet,” bringing together leaders under 40 with global figures including presidents, ministers, and CEOs to discuss international challenges. Led by President Jacobo Pombo, the organization has established partnerships with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which announced GYLF 2017’s launch. The GYLF reports in its online history that Pombo was invited by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to join an expert group visiting China in March 2016 to analyze preparatory work for the 19th National Congress, indicating deeper connections between the organization and Chinese leadership circles. The forum claims to have gained participation from King Felipe VI of Spain. It reports that it has brought together close to 150 young leaders at international events.
The News Agency of the Slovak Republic (Tlačová agentúra Slovenskej republiky), also known as TASR, is Slovakia’s national public news agency, established in 2008 through Act No. 358/2008 of the National Council of the Slovak Republic. Operating independently without state subsidies, TASR provides news coverage across domestic, foreign, economic, and sports. The agency offers news services in multiple languages, including English and Hungarian. TASR is also a member of the European Alliance of Press Agencies (EANA). The agency is governed by a director-general who is voted into the post by a five-member administrative board.
Albanian Radio-Television, known as Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH), is the public service broadcaster of Albania, established with the founding of Radio Tirana, which began broadcasting on November 28, 1944. The television division, known as TVSH, commenced operations in April 1960. Today, RTSH operates more than 20 television and radio channels, including Radio Tirana International. While RTSH is formally governed by the Albanian Parliament and funded through license fees, state subsidies, and commercial revenue, its editorial independence has been severely undermined since 2023, according to news reports. The appointment of Alfred Peza, a former Socialist Party MP, as Director General in June 2023 was followed by mass dismissals of journalists, prompting objections from the European Federation of Journalists.
On June 29, 2023, the Union of Bulgarian Journalists and the All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), China’s state-led professional body for working journalists, signed a memorandum establishing the “House of Chinese-Bulgarian Journalists” in Sofia. The agreement was signed by the executive secretary of the ACJA and the president of the Union of Bulgarian Journalists. The Chinese ambassador to Bulgaria, who was also identified as the Special Representative for China-CEEC Cooperation, attended the signing ceremony. Representatives from Xinhua News Agency (新華社), People’s Daily (人民日報), and China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台) participated in the event. The platform, described as enabling “seminars, training programs and mutual visits,” builds on the Union of Bulgarian Journalists’ existing practice of organizing annual trips and study visits to China for its members.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (上海合作组织), known as SCO, is a Eurasian political, economic, international security and defense organization established on June 15, 2001, and headquartered in Beijing, China, claiming to promote mutual security, political, and economic cooperation among member states. The organization emerged from the Shanghai Five mechanism formed in 1996 between China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan, with Uzbekistan joining at establishment and subsequent expansion to include India and Pakistan in 2017, Iran in July 2023, and Belarus in July 2024. According to organizational documents, the SCO positions itself as the world’s largest regional organization by geographic scope and population, covering approximately 24 percent of the world’s total area and 42 percent of the world population, with combined nominal GDP accounting for around 23 percent of the global total as of 2024. Members of the organization include: China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.