This article is about the Hong Kong version of the tabloid newspaper. For the Taiwan version of the newspaper, see Apple Daily (Taiwan)

Apple Daily (蘋果日報) is a Hong-Kong-based newspaper that was founded by Jimmy Lai (Lai Chee Ying, 黎智英) in 1995 and is published by his company, Next Media. A sister publication carrying the same name is published in Taiwan.

Apple Daily's main sections include "Local News", "Foreign News", "Finance", "Entertainment", "Sports" and "Others"—including technology, travel, eating, cooking, fashion and pornography.

Popularity

Apple Daily is the second best selling newspaper in Hong Kong, which is in a broadsheet like most Hong Kong newspapers, but the style is regarded as tabloid-like, employing emotional headlines and vulgar words.

Its standpoint is arguably libertarian in that it supports minimum government control on economic matters and on personal and political freedom. It is also explicitly opposed to the goverance of the Chinese Communist Party and the Hong Kong government.

As a result, reporters for the Apple Daily have been banned from doing interviews openly in Mainland China, and have been expelled from some commercial news conferences. Several commercial giants have also boycotted putting advertisements in the newspaper after it published reports that they considered unfavourable.

Controversy

Apple Daily Style, coined after its tremendous success in early 1990s, has influenced all local Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong to some degree. It refers to a highly consumer-oriented editorial standpoint, colorful printing, sensational stories and headlines. News writing is short with lots of graphic illustrations, photos and tables.

The controversy over the style has been raised on different levels. It was the first newspaper to introduce the paparazzi to investigate the life of famous people behind the scenes. Privacy issue has still been one of the hottest topics in Hong Kong journalism.

It also published reviews on prostitutes every day, along with pornographic pictures and stories, that displeased many, like parental and teacher's groups. Other issue include its explicit photos on corpses and series of photos on how people committed suicide.

In November, 1998, an example which was later coined Chan Kin-Hong Incident (陳健康事件), a women jumped from a high building with two young children and Apple Daily paid her husband to go whoring with prostitutes. Apple Daily apologised for the outrage it caused. (See Media in Hong Kong#Incidents with Impact)

Others

In September, 2003, veteran columnist To Kit (陶傑) joined the newspaper, and publishes his daily column "The Golden Adventure" (黃金冒險號) and a weekly editorial called "Sunday Rest" (星期日休息) at the newspaper.

See also

• Media in Hong Kong
• Newspapers of Hong Kong

External link

• Atnext.com