
Ask HN: What Are Some Good African, Asian, South American News Websites? - danj
I&#x27;m constantly looking to build and increase my knowledge of the world, but I realised the &#x27;World&#x27; section of many news websites I follow (NYTimes, Wash Post, Guardian, BBC, FT, WSJ etc) do not have a particular large amount of African, Asian, South American news.<p>What news websites do you guys know&#x2F;recommend to follow for news in these countries? Language would preferably be in English.
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nkurz
Al Jazeera should definitely be on your list for non-Western coverage:
[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/)

Their coverage of the middle-East is likely to be biased by their Qatari
ownership, but they cover major world stories neglected by the Western press.
More details about their potential bias here:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_controversies_and_c...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_controversies_and_criticism).

~~~
naruvimama
Extremely one sided and pro-islamic.

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muzani
I'm not sure what you mean? Of course, there's an Islamic bias because it's
written by Muslims. But it's a lot fairer than most media.

~~~
naruvimama
Not just bias, but sometimes a propaganda piece. One side of the story, often
the most significant one is left out.

It is funded by the state of Qatar to act as its mouthpiece. In the Islamic
world every country legitimizes itself by trying to sound more islamic than
the other.

I am just stating that they may be strongly biased. They do make crisp
documentaries and interesting news stories.

~~~
aaron695
Could you link a biased story?

I would put their bias on par with CNN, but would like a story to see what you
mean. What is a good example?

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ponsin
[https://www.memri.org/tv/al-jazeera-holocaust-denial-
israel-...](https://www.memri.org/tv/al-jazeera-holocaust-denial-israel-
biggest-winner-same-justification-annihilate-palestinians/transcript)

here is an article about a video they published which they took down after
enough backlash. imagine what articles / videos were just as biased but didn't
get taken down

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forkLding
[https://www.project-syndicate.org/](https://www.project-syndicate.org/)
because its more from the source of international figures, a bit like an
Twitter for intelligent international scholars and public figures.

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pbk1
For Asian regional news in English I'd recommend Southern China Morning Post.
It's based out of Hong Kong and still independent from the CCP's grasp (for
now).

~~~
elfexec
SCMP was created by "western" anti-chinese propagandists.

"The journal was founded by Australian-born anti-Qing dynasty revolutionary
Tse Tsan-tai and British journalist Alfred Cunningham"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_China_Morning_Post](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_China_Morning_Post)

It's strange you think it is something to be recommended pre-alibaba, but not
something to be recommended post-alibaba.

~~~
closed
How is Tse Tsan-tai a western, anti-chinese propagandist? He was a
collaborator w/ Sun Yat-sen. I realize the two drew influence from western
ideals (and christianity), but wonder what makes them anti-chinese.

That the Chinese government praised Sun Yat-sen, and printed a commemorative
coin for his 150th birthday, seems at odds with your sentiment.

[http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2016-10/25/content_271713...](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2016-10/25/content_27171381.htm)

~~~
elfexec
> How is Tse Tsan-tai a western, anti-chinese propagandist?

"Born in Grafton, New South Wales, to a "patriotic" Chinese, Tse Yat-cheong
(謝日昌), Tse Tsan-tai was baptised James See on 1 November 1879."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tse_Tsan-
tai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tse_Tsan-tai)

When I wrote anti-chinese, I meant at the time - qing china. And the SCMP was
created by a british "journalist" and Tse specifically to push anti-chinese
propaganda at that time.

> That the Chinese government praised Sun Yat-sen, and printed a commemorative
> coin for his 150th birthday, seems at odds with your sentiment.

Why? The CCP can choose to celebrate parts of sun yat-sen's legacy which
aligns with their own ideology - especially the destruction of china's feudal
system. Also, you can praise sun yat-sen as a larger part of reincorporating
taiwan back to the mainland.

We celebrate Robert E. Lee, does it make the US anti-US? Hell in the 1970s,
the US celebrate Mao and Deng in order to grow our relationship. Doesn't make
the US pro-communist.

~~~
closed
> When I wrote anti-chinese, I meant at the time

Ah, okay. I read your original post as critical of scmp as anti Chinese today,
but am not sure if that's what you meant now.

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f00_
The Intercept and Democracy Now cover South America quite a bit.

Particularly politics and environmental issues, for example Glenn Greenwald
lives and has been reporting in Brazil.

Some good advice someone gave me awhile ago was to follow journalists
themselves instead of news outlets

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xenocyon
I would recommend the Economist for well-written world news. It's not free,
but well worth paying for.
[https://www.economist.com/](https://www.economist.com/)

~~~
naruvimama
They do have free podcasts. Their bias is colonialist in nature.

~~~
grzm
Rather than criticize the suggestions of others in this thread, how about
provide some suggestions that meet your own criteria? And note that you always
have to consider the source. At the very least, people are human: they’re not
omniscient, write for a particular audience, and have limited resources. These
in and of themselves contribute to bias without any malicious or underhanded
intent.

~~~
naruvimama
I just presented my opinion. I am a regular listener. As a non westerner I
know for a fact that stories about my own country is dominated by a colonial
view point.

The OP is specifically looking for sources that do not have western bias. And
I hope my opinion will be useful.

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w-ll
I'm a big fan of NHK. This is their news, but they have some other programming
thats kinda similar to PBS
[https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/)

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CapricornNoble
[https://thediplomat.com/](https://thediplomat.com/)

^IMO hands down the best site for geopolitical editorial coverage of Asia.

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danj
Thank you! For all the suggestions, I'll definitely be adding all of these to
my list. Any more suggestions is greatly appreciated!

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SordidChatter
In South Africa, the Daily Maverick and the Mail & Guardian. Both more
politics than breaking news, both left-leaning, both well-regarded.

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qmmmur
If you want actual coverage I would go to bellingcat

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franzwong
[https://asia.nikkei.com/](https://asia.nikkei.com/) from Japan is quite good.

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cobbaut
Al Jazeera [https://www.aljazeera.com/](https://www.aljazeera.com/)

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vincengomes
for news about India, you can use The Hindu. Generally, the articles tends to
be neutral to left-leaning.

[https://www.thehindu.com/](https://www.thehindu.com/)

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zlwaterfield
Checkout this YC company from the W19 batch
[https://www.thejuggernaut.com/newsletter](https://www.thejuggernaut.com/newsletter)

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aliswe
Bloombergs different regional sites, eg.
[https://www.bloomberg.com/middleeast](https://www.bloomberg.com/middleeast)

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elfexec
> I follow (NYTimes, Wash Post, Guardian, BBC, FT, WSJ etc)

What's the point? They are all essentially the same news company. They push
the same narrative and agenda. Just pick one and move on with your day.

The problem is that a lot of african, asian and south american news companies
are created by, owned by or run by by westerners. And most of them, like the
SCMP, were created by the west to push western propaganda. So essentially, you
aren't getting african, asian and south american news. You are getting western
propaganda about african, asian and south american news.

Also, africa, asia and south america are huge continents. I don't think there
is such a thing called "african, asian and south american" news.

For geopolitical news, xinhua/cgtn for china, rt for russia, al jazeera, etc.
They are all biased propaganda, just like the (NYTimes, Wash Post, Guardian,
BBC, FT, WSJ etc), but you get a different biased perspective. I find that
they are generally good at pointing each others lies.

> What news websites do you guys know/recommend to follow for news in these
> countries? Language would preferably be in English.

Why not just follow vlogs of countries you are interested? Or visit the
countries you are interested in? Or find some forums/irc/etc of the countries
you are interested in and talk directly to the people?

News, by and large, is a great waste of time. Most of it is toxic nonsense
written by people who know nothing about the subject they are covering.

