It looks like even City Harvest Church (CHC) doesn’t trust the Singapore mainstream media these days. When 6 CHC leaders were arrested last year, some of the church members were unhappy at what they perceived as biased reporting by the mainstream media.
CHC currently employs its own media unit to cover the ongoing trial of 6 of its leaders, including pastor Kong Hee.
The CHC media unit, City News, has a core group of about 15 volunteer journalists. They are a mixed bunch of students and working professionals, some with media experience. They have been taking turns to cover the trial.
CHC aims to give its own perspective on the trial of its leaders.
The team produces video news segments which are uploaded to its channel on YouTube, called citynewssingapore, as well as writing on the court proceedings. Not surprisingly, the news tends to heavily feature comments from defence lawyers and pastors. The stories are published on CHC’s portal Citynews.sg.
CHC said, “While we understand the mainstream media’s perspective, we hope to plug possible gaps for our members.”
Following is the news produced by CHC’s City News team for the first day of the trial:
City News declined to reveal the budget of its operations.
TR Emeritus
*Article first appeared on www.TREmeritus.com