World Journal
Template:Short description Template:Hatnote Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox newspaper Template:Infobox Chinese
World Journal (Template:Lang-zh) is a Taiwanese broadsheet newspaper published in North America. It is the largest Chinese language newspaper in the United States<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and one of the largest Chinese-language newspapers outside of Greater China, with a daily circulation of 350,000. The newspaper is headquartered in the Whitestone neighborhood of Queens in New York City.<ref>"Contact Us (Page in Chinese) World Journal. Retrieved on November 19, 2011. "New York Headquarters 141-07 20th Ave. College Point, NY 11357"</ref>
World Journal is published in major cities in the United States with large overseas Chinese populations, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, as well as cities in Canada, including Vancouver and Toronto.<ref name="cmmd">Template:Cite web</ref> The publication is widely sold in many Chinatowns and major suburbs.
History
The newspaper was established on February 12, 1976 in New York and San Francisco.<ref name="worldjournalbrief">Template:Cite web</ref> The World Journal is one of three major Chinese-language dailies among the Chinese American community. The publication is owned by the same media conglomerate that runs the United Daily News in Taiwan and carries a significant Taiwanese American administrative presence.<ref name="cmmd" /> Until the mid-1990s, it was viewed as hostile to the People's Republic of China, in part because the paper referred to people from mainland China as "Communist Chinese". Furthermore, its coverage on mainland China usually comprised only one article or so each day out of dozens of pages and sections.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
However, the newspaper has changed since it began increasing its coverage of mainland China.<ref name=":02">Template:Cite book</ref> Following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, such coverage increased to two pages per day. While the paper still attempts to maintain an anti-communist stance,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> it has become increasingly sensitive to the tastes of its large Chinese immigrant readership which has grown since the 1990s with the expanded access to permanent resident green cards in the United States following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Another reason for the shift was rooted in the newspaper's sympathy for the Chinese democracy movement.
Like its parent, the United Daily News, the World Journal is widely seen as taking an editorial line that favors the Pan-Blue coalition and the Kuomintang.<ref name="cmmd" /> Consequently, this editorial position has made it much less hostile toward the People's Republic since the 1990s. Immediately after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the newspaper no longer referred indiscriminately to all mainland Chinese as "Communist Chinese", and additionally praised pro-democracy efforts on the mainland. During the mid-1990s, it began to give credit to the positive progress made in mainland China, and by the late-1990s, it began to criticize wrongdoings within the Chinese democracy movement and in the West in the same manner with which it criticizes corruption within the Chinese communist regime.Template:Citation needed After 2000, there has also been an increase in the representation of mainland Chinese immigrants on the newspaper's reporting staff, and the paper has published readers' letters voicing different views from the pro-Taiwan independence stance that have also made it popular among mainland Chinese immigrants to the United States.<ref name=":0" />
World Journal ceased publication in Canada on January 1, 2016, to better focus its business in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Controversies
Alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party
According to a 2001 report by the Jamestown Foundation, World Journal was one of the four major Chinese newspapers found in the U.S. that "has recently begun bowing to pressure from the Beijing government." The other three which were Sing Tao Daily, Ming Pao Daily News, and The China Press had already been "either directly or indirectly controlled by the government of Mainland China". The report referenced an instance of self-censorship by World Journal in its efforts to develop business ties with the People's Republic of China in which Chinese consulates in both New York and San Francisco have pressured the paperTemplate:'s local offices not to publish ads related to Falun Gong. The New York office reportedly acquiesced in full and did not publish the ads, while the San Francisco office acquiesced in part by burying the ads among the paper's least viewed pages.<ref>Duzhe, Mei. China Brief Vol1, Issue 10. "How China's Government is Attempting to Control Chinese Media in America" "Jamestown Foundation." 2001</ref> Conversely, Jason Q. Ng of China Digital Times and Citizen Lab<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> considered World Journal in 2013 to be relatively critical of PRC policies.<ref name="Ng2013">Template:Cite book</ref>
Labor law violation
On January 10, 2007, a Southern California jury found the Monterey Park-based Chinese Daily News responsible for failing to give employees breaks, lunches, and overtime, and awarded the plaintiffs $2.5 million. The plaintiffs alleged that they worked over twelve hours per day, were not provided accurate pay statements, and were unfairly interfered with during unionization attempts. In 2001, the employees voted to join the Communication Workers of America, but the National Labor Relations Board vacated the union vote after finding that the election was tainted. The Chinese Daily News appealed the ruling in the district court, with proceedings held in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2011, after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Dukes v. Wal-Mart, the U.S. Supreme Court remanded the case back to the Ninth Circuit for reconsideration in light of Dukes. On September 13, 2013, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the district court's grant of class certification under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) Rule 23(b)(3). Upon remand at the district court level, Plaintiffs once again moved for class certification, and the district court recertified the class.
Chinese Daily News thereafter filed a FRCP Rule 23(f) Petition to Appeal, which the Ninth Circuit granted on August 22, 2014. In 2016, the Chinese Daily News agreed to pay $7.8 million to former and current employees in a settlement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Los Angeles area-based Chinese Daily News was later amalgamated into the New York City-headquartered World Journal.<ref>Law 360, San Diego (March 05, 2013, 10:55 PM ET)</ref><ref>ninth circuit court of appeal No. 08-55483 D.C. No.2:04-cv-01498-CBM-JWJ</ref>
Discrimination against breastfeeding women
On October 21, 2013, World Journal published a controversial article that allegedly discriminated against breastfeeding women. Titled "Breastfeeding photos embarrass Chinese-American to death", the article cited anonymous resources, labeled breastfeeding photos as "R-rated-photos", and described those photos as "disturbing" and "disgusting." The article received strong reaction among Chinese American Community and the Taiwanese Breastfeeding Association launched a protest against World Journal. Media Watch criticized that the report was "misleading" and "biased."<ref>Political Exposure: the Breasts</ref>
It was also reported that World Journal allegedly failed to accommodate employees' legal nursing needs. Taiwanese American journalist and author To-wen Tseng blogged about her experience of being forced to pump her breast milk in a bathroom stall, and was harassed by colleagues for attempting to wash pumping accessories in the office kitchen.<ref>"I'd rather be breastfeeding", blog post, Nov 2013</ref> In November 2013, Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center submitted a lawyer's letter to World Journal, requesting a policy change and supervisor training regarding nursing employees' legal rights.
The World Journal disputed the employee's claims, but agreed to settle the case. On August 25, 2014, World Journal made a policy change as requested and paid for the damage.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>settlement agreement between LAS-ELC and World Journal 08-25-2014.</ref>
See also
References
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- Asian-American press
- Chinese-language newspapers (Traditional Chinese)
- Chinese-language newspapers published in the United States
- Chinese-American culture in New York City
- National newspapers published in the United States
- Daily newspapers published in New York City
- Newspapers established in 1976
- Non-English-language newspapers published in New York (state)
- Publications disestablished in 2016
- 2016 disestablishments in Canada
- Defunct newspapers published in Canada
- Defunct overseas Chinese newspapers