About Us

CitizenMap is a citizen reporting project based in Hong Kong. The project is an initiative of the South China Morning Post, as a way of mapping the stories happening in Hong Kong and southern China. It aims to offer a collective voice to Hong Kong residents by aggregating local citizen reports, Hong Kong community media and other relevant news and information.

CitizenMap starts with environmental issues, focusing on the destruction of natural beauty in Hong Kong - from illegal dumping to unauthorized development, from vegetation removal to columbarium construction.

The project will be expanded to cover other topics in the future.

Who can report?

We welcome anyone who cares about Hong Kong to submit reports to us. Both individuals and groups are welcomed.

What to report?

At this stage, we would welcome reports about significant environmental incidents happening in Hong Kong. We have set up certain categories of stories that you can take as reference. If you have stories that don't fit into any of those categories, do not hesitate to let us know.

The report doesn't have to be a professional news story, but do make sure that:

a) Only submit text and images that you have the rights to use;

b) What you report is what you've personally witnessed, not things you've heard or been told;

c) You're welcomed to express your opinions with the incident that you report, but no spam/pornography/violence/racially or ethnically offensive content please. Those will not be published.

What information to be included in your report?

a) What happened: give us as much detail as you can;

b) Where it took place: be specific, give us street names, district or even latitude/longitude;

c) When it happened: if it is a current issue, include the date and time; if it is an old issue, let us know the exact year it occurred;

d) Who you are: this is optional, but we encourage you to leave your full name and contact details (email and phone number) so that we can follow up.

How can you submit a report? By

a) Filling in the form on this site

b) Sending an email to citizenmap@scmp.com

c) Sending a tweet with the hashtag #citizenmap

Who will edit your report?

SCMP's editors will look at incoming reports within 24 hours and publish those that fit the guidelines.

If your report needs to be followed up by our reporters, we might get back to you for more details.

Who owns the right of the submitted reports?

Contributors to CitizenMap should be aware that, upon submitting the reports, the contributor has granted to South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. (SCMPP) the unencumbered right to edit and publish the contents of the reports, as well as to preserve it in SCMPP's database and archives. SCMPP also reserves the right to publish and/or reproduce the reports (in whole or in part) in any of its print, digital or electronic publications and websites.

When you send us your reports or comments, we will moderate and put them up on the map. You will see some dots are bigger than others, with numbers indicating how many people have reported the same information.

When you click on a dot, you will see a speech bubble with headline information about the report.

If you click on the speech bubble you will see more information and whether the report has been verified. We will only verify reports when we have been able to independently confirm the information.

The South China Morning Post (aka SCMP or 'the Post'), together with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is a leading English-language Hong Kong newspaper, published by the SCMP Group.

If you have any comments or suggestions to this project, you may reach us at:

Emai: citizenmap@scmp.com

Twitter: @citizenmap