Overview

Ad Fontes Media rates South China Morning Post in the Middle category of bias and as Reliable, Analysis/Fact Reporting in terms of reliability. South China Morning Post is a newspaper and website that offers news and analysis on stories important to Southeast Asia. Its mission is to “lead the global conservation about China.” The newspaper, founded in 1903, is based in Hong Kong and published in English.

Overall Score

The following are the overall bias and reliability scores for South China Morning Post according to our Ad Fontes Media ratings methodology.

Reliability: 41.61

Bias: -3.25

Panels of analysts from Ad Fontes Media regularly review representative sample content to rate it for reliability and bias. Each panel of analysts comprises one left-leaning, one right-leaning, and one center-leaning analyst.

The team considers a variety of factors when rating content. To determine its reliability score, we consider the content’s veracity, expression, its title/headline, and graphics. We add each of these scores to the chart on a weighted scale, with the average of those creating the sample content’s overall reliability score.

To determine sample content’s bias score, we consider its language, its political position, and how it compares to other reporting or analysis from other sources on the same topic. We add each of these scores to the chart on a weighted scale, with the average of those creating the content’s overall bias score.

The bias rating, demonstrated on the Media Bias Chart^®️ on the horizontal axis, ranges from most extreme left to middle to most extreme right. The reliability rating, demonstrated on the chart’s vertical axis, rates sources on a scale from original fact reporting to analysis, opinion, propaganda and inaccurate/fabricated information.

Reliability scores for articles and shows are on a scale of 0-64. Scores above 40 are generally good; scores below 24 are generally problematic. Scores between 24-40 indicate a range of possibilities, with some sources falling there because they are heavy in opinion and analysis, and some because they have a high variation in reliability between articles.

Bias scores for articles and shows are on a scale of -42 to +42, with higher negative scores being more left, higher positive scores being more right, and scores closer to zero being minimally biased, equally balanced, or exhibiting a centrist bias.

Individual Content Sample Scores

These are the most recent content samples that Ad Fontes Media analysts have rated for this source.

Content Sample URL	Bias	Reliability
TikTok ban: ByteDance would rather shut app down than sell, insiders say	0	44
China GDP: disappointing second-quarter growth tests Beijing’s ammunition to fix uneven economic recovery	0	42
Climate change: agriculture must adapt to ensure global food security	-3.67	35
Chinese supreme court judge jailed for 12 years for corruption	0	40.33
New York shows how Hong Kong can embrace car-free, pedestrian-friendly streets and not hurt businesses	-1.33	34
Mainland China launches probe into Taiwan’s ‘trade barriers’ affecting 2,400 products	0	44.33
Japan’s ‘sushi terrorism’ craze rattles chains as viral food tampering videos hit social media	0	37
Second teenager charged over London shooting of Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson	-0.67	46
Unnamed bidder pays US$28 million to join Jeff Bezos on Blue Origin space flight next month	0	46.67
US-China tech war: Huawei is still on the hook as Joe Biden fine-tunes America’s competitive strategy with Beijing	0	44.33
In an overstimulated US economy, will inflation really be transitory?	6.33	38.67
Science must drive any investigation into the origin of Covid-19	-3.67	36.33
Fully vaccinated people can stop wearing masks indoors, says US CDC	0	46
US needs new legal tools to combat China threats, says trade chief Katherine Tai	-2	42.33
Servers of Colonial Pipeline hacker Darkside taken down by unknown actors	1.33	43.67
US issues national terrorism alert, warning extremists may strike as coronavirus restrictions ease	-3.67	43.33
WHO Wuhan coronavirus mission over but much more work still to do	-1	46.33
Covid-19 research shows downsides of face shields and valve masks	-1	51.67
Coronavirus death rate may be as bad – or worse – than for Spanish flu	-6.33	37.67
Bitter Trump could punish China and Hong Kong in event of US election defeat, sanctions expert warns	-8.67	29.33
Could Russia side with the US and India against China?	-3.33	40.33
Taiwanese military releases video of troops ‘fending off attack from Chinese mainland’	-4.33	39.33
South China Sea: ‘If China attacks our navy, we’ll call the US’, Philippines says	1.33	50.67
Chinese diplomat pictured walking on locals’ backs highlights Pacific power struggle	-2.33	53.33
Michelle Obama: ‘Systemic racism’ is coming from the White House	-7	48.25