"Team of journalists resigned after SCMP axed 3-part series on Xinjiang abuses, ex-editor says" 25 October 2022

Two reporters quit the South China Morning Post (SCMP) last year after a senior editor axed their three-month investigation into human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, according to an editor who resigned shortly after.

During a Foreign Correspondents’ Club talk in Japan on October 13, Peter Langan revealed that he quit his senior editor role at the newspaper’s China desk following multiple conference calls with management in 2021 about the three-part series on birth control policies in the Xinjiang region. The SCMP told HKFP the feature failed to meet its “editorial verification process and publishing standards,” despite them relying on a review of official government data. [...]

In response to HKFP, the SCMP declined to discuss the resignations, but a spokesperson said: “The South China Morning Post holds to the highest standards of journalistic integrity, and as such, only publishes stories based on clear, credible and verified evidence. The stories in question did not pass our editorial verification process and publishing standards.” [...]