The ongoing appeal by the City Harvest Church leaders have been thoroughly covered by the mainstream media since the very beginning.

But did you know there is another news site that has been covering it almost as religiously as the mainstream sites?

That's right, City News, the news arm of City Harvest, has been providing coverage rivaling that of the far larger mainstream media.

In fact, they have even come up with some handy graphics to help readers understand the trial better.

Neat!

Differences in coverage

But apart from handy visual aids, there have been some other facets of the coverage that have differed slightly between the two.

DPP or DPP Christopher Ong

A small difference between their coverage has been on the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP).

For the uninitiated, the DPP is basically a law officer who conducts criminal proceedings on behalf of the state or in the public interest.

Here is how The Straits Times and Channel News Asia introduced him.

Channel News Asia

Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong said...

The Straits Times

That was what Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong told the court...

And this is how City News reported mentioned Ong.

The deputy public prosecutor (DPP) set out to summarize the key factual findings...

And that is not cherrypicking. In the entirety of their coverage on the appeal, the DPP's name was mentioned exactly zero times. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named applies here.

And with the lack of recognition of the DPP's names, some priceless gems he dropped during the trial, went unmentioned in City News.

Some gems like these:

"With the truth having been laid bare at trial, it has become a web of deceit from which they cannot and should not be allowed to escape."

The choice to not introduce Ong by name is rather strange, considering they have no qualms mentioning other Senior Counsel, or Justice's by name.

Different content

Another interesting variation was the actual parts of the proceedings that were reported.

For example, ST reported on Chew Eng Han's allegation that Kong Hee called his wife "the next Whitney Houston".

City News did not make mention of that particular exchange.

City News, however, focused on another part of the appeal later on that mainstream media did not pick up, involving an argument over whether Kong Hee was like Robin Hood.

The crux of the exchange being, DPP Ong's assertion of Kong Hee and friends as Robin Hood-esque characters, was mistaken.

Because, while Robin Hood took from the rich, and gave to the poor, the City Harvest leaders, it was argued, did not indulge in the taking from the rich.

Headlines

And, finally the headlines.

Some of them were similar for both sides.

Most of the headlines mainstream media ran didn't appear on City News at all.

Instead, City News chose to run this as a headline.

It's almost hard to believe, these snippets are on the exact same trial.

Related article:

Prosecution seeks to increase City Harvest Church leaders’ sentences by more than 30 years

Top image from City Harvest Facebook page

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