Hong Kong’s countryside has seen an influx of tourists with the start of the Labour Day Golden Week in mainland China, recording over 600,000 arrivals in the first two days of the five-day-long holiday.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said on Saturday that ecological hotspots were crowded on Friday, the first day of the Labour Day holiday.

High-traffic areas included High Island Reservoir East Dam, Sharp Island, Shui Hau on Lantau, and various Sai Kung East Country Park campsites, the AFCD wrote in a Facebook post.

Over 1,000 camping tents were spotted in the three campsites at Ham Tin Wan, Sai Wan, and Long Ke Wan in Sai Kung East Country Park on Friday evening, the AFCD said, adding that good order and hygiene were maintained at the sites.

High Island Reservoir East Dam, a popular scenic spot in Sai Kung East Country Park, saw 5,700 visitors on Friday, according to the authority.

The department imposed crowd control measures from 11am to 3pm at the Po Pin Chau viewing platform.

In Sai Kung’s Sharp Island, the number of visitors exceeded expectations, the AFCD said, with around 3,000 arrivals on the first day of Golden Week.

The AFCD conducted joint patrols with the police, the Marine Department, and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, issuing around 300 verbal warnings on Friday.

Separately, Shui Hau on Lantau saw around 1,000 arrivals on Friday.

The AFCD announced earlier that it would step up measures at ecological hotspots during the Labour Day Golden Week, deploying drones and additional staff to patrol hotspots as well as conduct public education.

The government has faced criticism over its management of ecological hotspots, especially after concerns of overtourism and damage to the environment came to light during last year’s Golden Week holiday.

Greenpeace said ahead of this Golden Week that AFCD’s new measures were advisory in nature and lacked deterrence.

The international environmental protection NGO said on Facebook on Saturday that it visited Sai Kung’s Sharp Island on Friday and found many visitors had dug up marine life such as clams and sea urchin.

Around 22 people were seen foraging at 4pm on Friday in Hap Mun Bay, a beach located in the southern part of Sharp Island, according to the NGO.

However, there were no government officers on site to stop the visitors, Greenpeace said.

Rising number of tourists

Hong Kong’s finance minister Paul Chan said in his blog on Sunday that the city recorded a total of 602,000 tourists through various checkpoints on Friday and Saturday, the first two days of Golden Week.

The number marked a 6 per cent increase compared to last year, Chan said.

“As the Golden Week holiday enters its third day, Hong Kong remains vibrant with a positive business outlook,” Paul said in the Chinese-language blog. “Many retailers and restaurants expect to see solid business performance throughout this Golden Week period.”

The official said visitor arrivals in the first quarter of 2026 grew by 17 per cent compared to the same period last year, with over 14.3 million arrivals.

The figure still falls short of 2019 levels. In the first quarter of 2019, Hong Kong recorded over 18.2 million of arrivals, according to the Tourism Board.

Sri Lankan police have arrested 37 Chinese nationals suspected of running a cyberscam centre in the capital Colombo, a spokesman said on Sunday, in the latest crackdown on foreign-run online fraud.

The suspects, aged between 23 and 44 and including one woman, were arrested after a tip-off, the police spokesman said.

“They had entered the country on tourist visas and were illegally employed, while two of them had overstayed their visas,” he added.

A local police source said 35 tablet computers, 147 mobile phones and 100 SIM cards were seized at the suspected scam centre in the Colombo suburb of Talangama.

The arrests came a month after 152 foreign nationals, mostly Chinese, were detained for allegedly running a cyberscam operation out of a hotel in the island’s northwest.

Immigration authorities arrested 135 Chinese men and women in March for allegedly running a similar scam operation. They have since been deported.

Beijing’s embassy in Colombo said at the time it was working closely with local authorities to prevent Chinese nationals from carrying out scam operations in Sri Lanka.

The embassy said Sri Lanka’s developed telecommunications infrastructure, favourable geographical location and relatively lenient visa policies encouraged fraud gangs to move to the South Asian nation.

In 2024, Sri Lankan authorities detained 230 Chinese nationals and 200 Indian nationals accused of operating cybercrime centres in various parts of the island.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Saturday announced his arrival in Eswatini — Taipei’s only diplomatic ally in Africa — after an earlier trip was cancelled when several countries revoked overflight permits.

Those various African nations withdrew overflight permission following “intense pressure” from Beijing, one of Lai’s closest advisers said at the time, forcing cancellation of the initially scheduled April 22-26 trip.

Lai on Saturday said only that his initial visit had been “suspended due to unexpected external forces”.

But “after days of secret arrangements by the diplomatic and national security teams, we arrived successfully today (Saturday),” he said in a Facebook post.

“I hope this trip will contribute to even deeper friendship between Taiwan and Eswatini, thanks to closer economic, agricultural, cultural and educational links, as well as promote Taiwan’s international cooperation,” he added.

“The 23 million Taiwanese people have the right to embrace the world and engage with the world,” Lai said in a speech before the Eswatini royal family and assembled dignitaries.

“And no country has the right and no country should ever block Taiwan from contributing more to the world,” he added.

Earlier Saturday, China’s foreign ministry accused Lai of making a “stowaway-style escape farce” that made him “an international laughing stock”.

“No matter how the DPP authorities collude with external forces … it is all in vain and cannot change the fact that Taiwan is part of China,” an unnamed spokesperson said in a statement on the ministry’s website, referring to Lai’s party.

“We urge Eswatini and other individual countries to see clearly the general trend of history … and not pull chestnuts out of the fire for a handful of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists,” the statement said.

Eswatini, a small enclave kingdom formerly known as Swaziland, is one of 12 countries that still recognise Taiwan. China has persuaded other nations to break diplomatic ties with the self-ruled island, which it claims as part of its territory.

Lai was due in Eswatini in April for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession to the throne, but cancelled the visit after the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar revoked overflight permissions, “unexpectedly and without notice”, according to his office.

As we mark Sunday’s UN World Press Freedom Day, ahead of HKFP’s 11th anniversary next month, our team of seven are soldiering on. We remain on the ground despite unprecedented political and financial pressure last year, including threats and harassment, scrutiny from multiple government departments, pressure on our corporate partners, and false complaints to the authorities.

Nevertheless, we’ve added around 300 new members since our funding relaunch last summer. We revamped our apps, launched a new HKFP Monitor newsletter, won a SOPA award, were accepted as a member of the Journalism Trust Initiative, and gave full, trusted coverage to the “patriots only” elections, Wang Fuk Court fire tragedy, the Jimmy Lai trial, and the Alliance case.

But press freedom isn’t free – only 0.3 per cent of our regular readers make a recurring donation to our newsroom. In 2025, our newsroom entered a fourth year of deficit with a record HK$1.9 million loss. We made aggressive cutbacks whilst seeking to protect jobs, salaries and output, though a 20-month “random” tax inspection strained resources. On average, we spent HK$159,428 more per month than we had coming in during 2025, but we were able to reinvest our surplus.

On Press Freedom Day, can you help us bridge the gap and protect independent reporting in the city? We accept most payment methods, and all recurring donors receive eight benefits – including a free gift, exclusive content, Editor’s Blogs, and access to HKFP Monitor. Below are 25 reasons to support Hong Kong’s most financially transparent newsroom.

Become a member with a HK$1,200+ yearly donation.

Become a member

Unlock all member benefits as a yearly donor.

Annually

HK$1,200

HK$3,000

HK$10,000

Other Donation amount per year

HK$

per year

Make a one-off donation.

Support HKFP

Make a donation to our newsroom of any sum (one-off donations do not unlock membership benefits.)

One-time

Donation amount

HK$

See also: Why you can trust Hong Kong Free Press

---

25 reasons to support the HKFP newsroom:

1. Fully independent – no billionaires, conglomerates or governments.

HKFP is not owned by any billionaire tycoon or conglomerate, controlled or funded by any government, nor answerable to any shareholders. We are 100 per cent independent in terms of our structure, finances and editorial output. HKFP has never been beholden to powerful elites or funders.

This means our reporting cannot be influenced by others, and that all decisions are made among the team in-house. Our independence is essential for maintaining the trust of our readers, and for holding those with power to account without interference.

2. Non-profit – answerable to Hongkongers, not shareholders.

Our work has no commercial motive. HKFP seeks to raise enough money to power our newsroom and fulfil our mission. Any funds left over at the end of the year are carried forward to be used in the future. If we experience a deficit, savings from previous years are used to fill the gap. Examine our income and spending here.

For-profit news outlets can suffer from bias, sensationalism and poor trust, as they prioritise stories which generate clicks and revenue, rather than providing a public service for readers. When an outlet becomes reliant on maximising profit, advertising and business interests can conflict with editorial and ethical considerations.

3. Proudly reader-funded – backed by 1,000 monthly supporters.

94 per cent of HKFP’s income comes directly from our readers, ensuring our press freedom and independence. The rest is from advertising, content sales, and licensing. HKFP does not rely on governments, umbrella companies or billionaire backers.

Instead, over 1,000 monthly donors donate an average of HK$200 to help sustain our newsroom – the best situation for our press freedom. Just 0.3 per cent of regular readers are HKFP Members – consider joining us!

4. Hong Kong’s most transparent news outlet.

HKFP is the most transparent news outlet in Hong Kong, if not Asia. We are externally audited every year, and anyone can examine our income and spending since 2015 – the year of our inception.

5. Governed by a comprehensive Ethics Code.

We publish our Policies, Ethics & Best Practices as part of HKFP’s commitment to credible, ethical, and independent journalism. These ever-evolving policies underpin all of our reporting practices.

They govern how we deal with certain topics, like elections; a host of issues like race, disability or hate speech; as well as how we use certain tools, like AI, or undercover reporting. They guide how we deal with accuracy, anonymity, complaints, sourcing and paid-for content, and include a staff code of conduct. The comprehensive code is backed by the Trust Project and Journalism Trust Initiative.

6. Efficiently run – we make every cent count.

HKFP is run as efficiently and prudently as possible, in order to maximise the impact of our donors’ generosity. We make savings by partnering with other media outlets, using free software/tools, and making full use of teamwork and automation.

We do not employ marketing staff, donation managers, or social media editors – every employee is primarily a journalist. In light of a years-long deficit, in 2024-25, HKFP slashed costs by switching insurers and merch store suppliers, downgrading software packages, adjusting staff transport allowances, finding sponsors for key costs, moving to a smaller office and halting most advertising. We make every cent matter, and we disclose our spending annually.

7. Home to multi-award-winning journalism.

HKFP has been nominated for, or won, multiple awards over the years – including from the Human Rights Press Awards, the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association, and the Society of Publishers in Asia.

In 2021, our newsroom was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. In 2024, we were nominated for an International Press Institute Free Media Pioneer award, as well as a Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize.

8. No paywalls – accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Our daily reporting will always be paywall-free – we believe our journalism should be free and accessible to everyone. We ensure our news is available wherever your are: on Facebook, Bluesky, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Threads, Flipboard, Apple News, MSN, Factiva, LexisNexis, ProQuest, Telegram (or add our bot: @hkfp_bot) and through our Android and Apple phone apps.

9. Investing in original reporting.

Since our early years, we have quadrupled the number of original features, interviews and explainers published annually. With over 30,000 stories published, HKFP invests in original, award-winning reporting.

10. Facing up to harassment, intimidation and government scrutiny.

Hong Kong has seen journalists jailed, newsrooms raided, and media outlets disbanded as the city plummets in press freedom indices.

HKFP has not been immune. We have seen cyberattacks, threats, visa trouble, intimidation, harassment, physical attacks, surveillance, censorship in China, false complaints, media bans, a columnist fleeing, government inspections, and more than our fair share of pepper spray and tear gas.

Help protect what remains by supporting non-establishment media at this critical time.

11. Trusted reporting you won’t find elsewhere.

By definition, our trusted journalism may sometimes be unwelcome by those in power. Whether it’s reporting on the trials of the 47 democrats, Jimmy Lai or the Stand News editors; rounding up the latest national security arrests; covering the 2019 protests from the frontlines; or providing comprehensive reporting on the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary, HKFP does not shy away when others retreat.

Owing to the lack of independence and ownership issues among fellow news outlets, and given the press freedom situation and dwindling number of newsrooms, HKFP is one of the few trusted sources of news left in the city.

12. Serving Hong Kong’s minorities, as a voice of the voiceless.

HKFP ensures a special focus on sexual, ethnic and religious minorities, and offers trusted coverage of the city’s domestic worker and migrant communities. As an English-language outlet, we also serve the minority who do not read Chinese.

We exist to offer a voice to the voiceless and to hold the powerful to account. In 2022, our original reporting on the city’s underrepresented communities won us backing from Google’s News Equity Fund.

13. Part of the Trust Project network.

In 2023, we gained the Trust Project hallmark – the first global transparency standard that proves a news outlet’s commitment to original reporting, accuracy, inclusion, and fairness. As part of their external audit, we publicly disclosed and expanded our ethical policies, standards, reporting and corrections guidelines to adhere to the eight Trust Indicators.

The Trust Project seeks to improve media literacy and battle “fake news,” misinformation and online propaganda. We now join around 300 newsrooms across the world displaying the Trust Mark symbol, including the BBC, The Washington Post, Sky News, CTV and The Economist.

14. The city’s only Journalism Trust Initiative member.

In 2025, HKFP became Hong Kong’s only accredited member of the Journalism Trust Initiative following a months-long external audit. The project is an ISO standard and an international mechanism rewarding ethical journalistic practices.

The standard involved examining HKFP against 130 criteria, and was developed by a panel of 130 experts, including journalists, institutions, regulatory bodies, publishers, and new technology players.

15. 100% NewsGuard rating: Meeting all 9 credibility and transparency criteria.

HKFP meets all nine of the NewsGuard initiative’s credibility and transparency criteria. NewsGuard lists green or red credibility scores for over 6,000 news sites, with assessments carried out by humans, not algorithms.

Our 100 per cent rating reflects that we avoid false content, publish information responsibility, correct errors, label opinion and ads, avoid deceptive headlines, disclose ownership, financing and conflicts, and provide biographical information on writers.

16. Media watchdog Ad Fontes Media rates HKFP highly, above SCMP.

We have been rated by Ad Fontes Media experts as providing reliable, factual reporting from a politically neutral perspective. HKFP scored 43.20 in terms of reliability and news value, similar to NPR, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, and slightly above Sky News, The Economist and the local South China Morning Post.

HKFP is among the most politically balanced news outlets in the world, according to the watchdog’s rating. With a score of 0.24 – meaning “middle” in terms of bias – HKFP is comparable to outlets such as Sky News.

17. Society of Publishers in Asia and Int’l Press Institute members.

We are proud members of the International Press Institute, a 73-year-old global organisation dedicated to protecting press freedom and improving journalistic practice. HKFP is also part of the Society of Publishers in Asia, founded in 1982 to champion press freedom and promote excellence.

18. A clear corrections policy – with all errors fixed and logged.

Our Corrections Policy ensures accuracy and accountability across HKFP’s work, with the date, time and details of any correction appearing clearly at the bottom of articles.

We also maintain a log of every correction made to ensure we are as transparent as possible.

19. HKFP sets standards in the workplace.

We are signed up to Oxfam’s Living Wage initiative to ensure fair pay for all staff, including interns.

Our newsroom offers a wage in line with international news outlets, including a health care plan, mental health support and other benefits. In 2020, we enacted a Freelance Charter to set out fair terms and conditions for external contributors.

20. Our journalism has been cited worldwide.

Our impact is not just measured through clicks – HKFP’s journalism has been cited in countless news reports, as well as by NGOs and governments. Our reporting has been referenced by everyone from The New York Times, to The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the BBC, The Guardian, Reuters and others.

21. We ensure diversity – in our newsroom and in our coverage.

HKFP values inclusion and diversity – both in the newsroom and in our output – as part of our adherence to fair, balanced and accurate coverage. We amplify voices from underrepresented, underprivileged or marginalised groups, and our team seeks to balance opinions from different age groups, genders and ethnic backgrounds.

As part of our Diversity Statement, we have no tolerance for discrimination, prejudice or bullying and encourage job applications from candidates from minority backgrounds.

22. Boots on the ground and here to stay.

HKFP remains in Hong Kong as we can speak to Hongkongers, monitor the legislature, ask tough questions of officials, attend press events, and bear witness at court during key cases.

For now, it is better to have boots on the ground than attempt to report on the city from afar. Whilst the press freedom situation may be more predictable abroad, we can ensure better accuracy and nuance by staying put and navigating the situation.

23. Safeguarding press freedom.

In 2016, we helped to successfully lobby the government to recognise digital media and allow online journalists into press conferences. In 2021, we distributed a free, open-source fundraising platform for the industry. And in 2023, HKFP launched an anti-censorship version of our news app.

Over the years, we have also launched Ombudsman complaints to protect journalists’ access to press events, and co-signed several local and international statements to promote press freedom.

24. HKFP Members enjoy eight new benefits.

Donate monthly or yearly to unlock HKFP member benefits. Members receive an HKFP deer keyring or tote, exclusive Tim Hamlett columns, feature previews, “behind the scenes” insights, early access to our Annual Report, ad-free browsing, merch drops and discounts, and full access to our HKFP Monitor newsletter.

25. We accept most payment methods – it’s easier than ever to donate.

It couldn’t be easier to support us – HKFP accepts Mastercard, Visa, Amex, JCB, UnionPay, PayMe, Octopus, FPS bank transfers, Apple Pay, Google Pay and cheques.

You can also donate cash at CoinDragon kiosks, back us with a Patreon membership, advertise with HKFP, provide donations-in-kind or just help us spread the word.

Since Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020, the city has seen the closure of independent media outlets, journalists jailed, newsrooms raided and government tax audits that appear to disproportionately target the media sector.

Hong Kong has plummeted in a global press freedom index. It now ranks 140th in the annual Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, down from 73rd in 2019, whilst Chief Executive John Lee has said that press freedom remains intact. HKFP rounds up incidents that indicate how the city’s media landscape has changed.

---

April 2026

• A Hong Kong press union warned that the stalking of journalists has a “chilling effect” on press freedom, after the Security Bureau slammed the group over “groundless speculations” that law enforcement may have tailed reporters from local news outlet InMedia.
• Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk said journalists will not be permitted to tag along with survivors of the deadly Tai Po fire when they return to their flats to collect their belongings.
• Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that a French journalist was denied entry to Hong Kong in November, accusing the city’s authorities of “weaponising visas” against foreign media workers.

• Hong Kong remains at 140th place on Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) global press freedom index of 180 countries and territories, with the NGO highlighting the 20-year sentence handed down to Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai earlier this year.

March 2026

• Hong Kong’s High Court dismissed the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association’s legal challenge against government restrictions on media access to the vehicle registry, years after the government lost in a landmark case concerning a journalist’s use of the registry to obtain records of vehicles involved in the 2019 Yuen Long mob attack
• Yahoo Hong Kong announced it will begin winding down its news operation in line with its “strategic evaluation and long-term business planning.” An employee in Yahoo Hong Kong’s news content division confirmed to HKFP that the company would cease publishing original reports from April.
• Hong Kong independent bookseller Pong Yat-ming and three of his staff were reportedly arrested on suspicion of selling seditious titles, including a biography of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

• Three companies linked to the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper became “prohibited organisations” after the Hong Kong government removed them from the corporate registry.
• A former top editor of Apple Daily filed an appeal against his 10-year jail term in a high-profile national security case.

February 2026

• Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in jail following his conviction for conspiring to collude with foreign powers and conspiring to publish seditious materials. Six former Apple Daily staff who worked for Lai were jailed for 10 years for conspiring to collude with foreign powers.
• The government began the process to de-register three companies linked to the Apple Daily newspaper and list them as “prohibited organisations.”
• An appeals court overturned pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai‘s fraud conviction relating to an alleged lease violation at the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper headquarters.
• Jimmy Lai will not appeal against his national security conviction and 20-year jail term, his lawyer has said.

January 2026

• The government granted the Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club a new three-year lease at its historic Central location.
• Authorities slammed the BBC over what it said was an “unfounded report” about pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai’s health conditions while in prison.
• The government-funded broadcaster stopped publishing all of its podcasts, with dozens of shows – in English and Chinese – grinding to a halt on Spotify and RTHK’s self-hosted Podcast One platform.
• Hong Kong’s top judge criticised calls to release Jimmy Lai fter the pro-democracy media mogul’s conviction on foreign collusion and sedition charges, saying that such demands “strike at the very heart of the rule of law.”
• Former Wall Street Journal reporter Selina Cheng denied intentionally concealing from Hong Kong’s labour authorities her request for a HK$3 million settlement from the American newspaper, whom she is suing for wrongful termination.
• Hong Kong authorities slammed the European Parliament’s calls for sanctions against Chief Executive John Lee and other officials following the conviction of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai in his national security trial last month.
• A court heard during an ex-employee’s wrongful dismissal suit that Wall Street Journal was only willing to meet for mediation talks under certain “conditions.”

December 2025

• Running for chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association is a “legally protected right,” journalist Selina Cheng said, as her wrongful dismissal lawsuit against her former employer continued.
• China’s foreign affairs ministry in Hong Kong summoned the representatives of the US and the UK consulates general following “interfering” remarks made about the conviction of pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai.
• Hong Kong journalist Selina Cheng denied that financial compensation is the primary reason for suing The Wall Street Journal, saying she wants to hold her former employer accountable.
• The Wall Street Journal sought to halt a private prosecution brought by former employee Selina Cheng, who accuses the paper of firing her after she became chair of the local press union.
• Hong Kong’s policy bureaus rallied behind the High Court’s verdict against Apple Daily tycoon Jimmy Lai under the city’s Beijing-imposed national security law.
• US President Donald Trump said he wanted his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to free Jimmy Lai as he voiced sadness over the Hong Kong media mogul’s conviction.
• Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was found guilty of collusion and sedition charges in his national security trial.
• China’s national security agency in Hong Kong summoned international media representatives for a “regulatory talk”, saying some had spread false information and smeared the government in recent reports on a deadly fire and upcoming legislative elections.
• The Hong Kong government slammed an editorial by The Wall Street Journal, which accuses the city’s authorities of having moved to “silence dissent” after the deadly Tai Po blaze in Tai Po.

November 2025

• A Hong Kong judge rejected jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s bid to submit 101 new pieces of evidence in a libel lawsuit against Beijing-backed newspaper Ta Kung Pao, calling them “confusing, embarrassing and defective.”
• The Wall Street Journal pleaded not guilty to the allegedly unlawful firing of Hong Kong journalist Selina Cheng, who has accused the paper of sacking her for taking up leadership of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.
• Hong Kong director Kiwi Chow made an open appeal to the censorship office to “release” his Taiwan-produced film, citing months-long delays in the movie’s approval.

October 2025

• The Hong Kong government rejected a routine UK report calling for the release of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai ahead of his national security trial verdict, accusing London of “despicable political manoeuvres.”
• Hong Kong press freedom showed a slight rebound from a historic low, according to a trade union’s survey of journalists in the city, reflecting what the group calls the “resilience” of the media sector.
• A total of 50 films had been required to be edited, and 13 titles had not been approved for screening on national security grounds since Hong Kong amended the Film Censorship Ordinance in 2021, according to authorities.

September 2025

• The Hong Kong government vowed to help local media overcome “operational pressures” and expand overseas, with Chief Executive John Lee saying in his Policy Address that he would not “interfere with” their work.
• Hong Kong authorities rejected an “unfounded and biased” European Commission report, which said the rule of law in the city remained under “severe strain” in 2024 due to the implementation of national security legislation.

August 2025

• A newspaper publisher should enjoy a “greater latitude” of freedom of expression as guaranteed by the constitutional right of press freedom, lawyers for jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai has told a Hong Kong court during the closing arguments of his national security trial.
• Bloomberg journalist Rebecca Choong Wilkins was denied a work visa renewal by the Hong Kong Immigration Department, with no reason given, according to the local press club.
• The hearing for closing arguments of Jimmy Lai‘s national security trial was postponed twice, first due to bad weather and then a “medical issue” relating to the media tycoon’s heart.
• Hong Kong’s media regulator was denied a final bid to challenge a lower court’s ruling that a political satire aired by government-funded broadcaster RTHK did not constitute a breach of its code.

July 2025

• Lawyers for the Wall Street Journal indicated the newspaper will plead not guilty in a lawsuit launched by Selina Cheng, Hong Kong Journalists Association chairperson, who accuses the American newspaper of unlawful dismissal after she took the helm of the press union. 
• China’s foreign ministry office in Hong Kong condemned articles published by BBC Chinese and Nikkei Asia, accusing the foreign media outlets of “smearing” the city’s national security law as it marked its fifth anniversary.
• A total of 14 independent publishers will take part in an alternative book festival after some of them were barred from participating in Hong Kong’s official book fair.
• A group of former staff from Hong Kong independent media outlet Channel C launched a new online news platform – Channel We – with the financial support of a “white knight.”

June 2025

• A Hong Kong artist’s stall at an illustration art fair closed after police officers reportedly received complaints, photographed the displayed drawings, and passed them to national security police.
• Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal announced it would hear the appeal application of a former senior editor at defunct media outlet Stand News against his sedition conviction in September next year.
• The new head of Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club told HKFP the press club will “stay the course” under her tenure by supporting journalists and seeking dialogue with governments.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association voted in a new Executive Committee on Saturday, with freelance journalist Selina Cheng re-elected as chair unopposed.
• The Department of Justice will not intervene in Hong Kong Journalists Association chairperson Selina Cheng’s lawsuit against her ex-employer, the Wall Street Journal, over her alleged unlawful termination after taking on the union’s leadership role.

May 2025

• Hong Kong’s independent news sector, including companies, staff and family members, was facing simultaneous tax audits and backdated demands, the Hong Kong Journalists Association said, adding that the situation reflected a worsening press freedom environment.
• Hong Kong journalists told HKFP that police had stopped them from taking photos and videos of two sites linked to Beijing’s national security office, which are among six designated “prohibited places.”
• A documentary on Hong Kong journalist Ronson Chan was withdrawn from screenings in Taiwan, Canada, the US, and the UK, citing “pressure on the interviewee.”
• Hong Kong tumbled five places, to 140th, in the annual Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, entering the “red zone” – meaning a “very serious” situation – for the first time, alongside China.
• Following the publication of the annual index, state-backed newspaper Ta Kung Pao blasted Reporters Without Borders, calling the NGO “a political thug” and its press freedom rankings “a political smear tool.”
• Radio Free Asia said it would lay off almost all of its staff and close production in several languages, including a rare Uyghur service, after President Donald Trump cut off funding.

April 2025

• Hong Kong police arrested six people, including at least one director of independent media outlet Channel C’s parent company, for allegedly defrauding a government loan programme of HK$20 million in total.
• One week after the arrest, Channel C halted operations. Authorities say the outlet is behind on pension contributions totalling HK$230,000.
• A survey conducted by the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club found that the majority of its members said their working environment had changed for the worse over the past two years.
• Hong Kong’s commerce chief turned down an idea floated by a lawmaker to merge the city’s public broadcaster and the government’s public relations department, saying such a move would be “counterproductive” to official communication work.

March 2025

• The Hong Kong Journalists Association hailed its “best fundraising results in years” from an online auction, which was held after two hotels axed its annual dinner venue reservations.
• Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang accused a Ming Pao reporter of attempting to undermine the credibility of the government after the journalist asked why the official did not announce his trip to Thailand.
• Hong Kong’s security chief condemned a legal scholar for “undermining the rule of law” after the latter wrote an opinion piece criticising a court ruling that sent an ex-lawmaker to jail for “rioting” in the Yuen Long attack in 2019.
• Hong Kong’s security chief lashed out at British newspaper The Guardian over an article citing experts criticising a top court ruling on media mogul Jimmy Lai’s appeal as “another cut on the city’s once revered legal system.”
• Former Meta executive Sarah Wynn-Williams accused the social media giant of developing a censorship tool to monitor viral content in Hong Kong and Taiwan when Facebook attempted to gain access to the Chinese market.

February 2025

• Selina Cheng, chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, accused her ex-employer, The Wall Street Journal, of breaching the city’s laws protecting employees’ right to join union activities by firing her after she took on the union’s leadership role.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association postponed its annual fundraising dinner after the Regal Hongkong Hotel axed its venue booking, citing “water leakage causing unstable power supply.”
• The Communications Authority lost a bid to challenge a ruling at the top court, after a lower court ruled that the government-funded broadcaster RTHK had not breached its code with a satirical show about the police.
• HKFP reported several new cases of harassment to the police and launched a new zero-tolerance policy.
• A student union at the Chinese University of Hong Kong cancelled the screening of a Burmese film set in Myanmar’s ongoing civil war, citing a last-minute government warning that hosting the event may break the law.
• A verdict for Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai’s national security trial is expected in October 2025 as the pro-democracy media tycoon concluded his testimony.

January 2025

• A new wave of online harassment that followed a journalism student’s investigation into government “care teams” echoed an “organised attack” last year that saw dozens of reporters targeted, the Hong Kong Journalists Association said.
• Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog said it received two complaints in 2024 about journalists who were harassed, with one case transferred to the police for follow-up.
• Veteran journalist Sum Wan-wah of the Chinese University of Hong Kong spoke in defence of student reporters who were accused by an official of making “sweeping generalisations” in a video documentary about district-level “care teams”.
• Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper defended its journalism after the government described one of its reports on a cybersecurity bill as “biased and misleading.”
• Hong Kong’s housing minister rejected the “alarmist and pessimistic sentiment” in a report by the UK’s The Guardian, which suggested that the city’s proposed subdivided housing regulations had “run into trouble.”
• Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai continued to give testimony as he denied he acted as a “middleman” to help Taiwan re-establish diplomatic ties with the US.

December 2024

• Former Hong Kong journalists Chan Cheuk-sze and Kathy Wong won best documentary short at the 61st Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan for their debut film Colour Sampling Ideology.mov, a 59-minute visual analysis of colour symbolism in politics in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
• More Hong Kong residents than ever perceived the city’s news outlets to be self-censoring and shying away from criticising local and Beijing authorities, the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute found. In total, 65 per cent of the survey respondents perceived news outlets to have practiced self-censorship, up eight per cent from the previous year, and marking a record high.
• An independent media outlet in Macau took down a report about various facilities being shut down before Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to the territory to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to Beijing. The report was taken down “due to ‘unavoidable’ reasons,” according to All About Macau’s statement.
• Jimmy Lai continued to testify during his national security trial, saying he halted calls for sanctions against the Hong Kong and Beijing governments after the national security law came into effect in 2020, as it would be “suicide” to make such demands.

November 2024

• Independent news outlet InMedia was fined HK$10,000 over not keeping a register of its members and directors at its Wan Chai office.
• Jailed Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai took the stand for the first time in his national security trial, testifying that he had never tried to influence overseas governments’ foreign policy on Hong Kong or China.
• Hong Kong Journalists Association chairperson Selina Cheng sued The Wall Street Journal over her “unlawful dismissal,” after she was fired by the paper in July. Mediation with the US-based newspaper had been “ineffective,” she told reporters, after taking her case to the Labour Department, stating that she had been laid off unlawfully because of her participation in a union.

October 2024

• Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang accused ex-lawmaker Margaret Ng of “glorifying” jailed Stand News editor Chung Pui-kuen in an opinion piece published in Ming Pao. Ng, a barrister and former director of Stand News, said Chung had left a “detailed public record of the extent of press freedom allowed under current law” during his sedition trial.
• Jimmy Lai was refused a jury trial in a libel suit against the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao over articles it published in June 2020 claiming that the pro-democracy media tycoon planned to illegally abscond from Hong Kong. Lai was ordered to pay HK$300,000 in legal costs arising from the failed application.
• Hong Kong police served US tech firm Automattic with a notice to take down diaspora media site Flow HK, citing national security grounds.
• Hong Kong’s police crime unit said it had taken over the investigation into reported harassment of journalists, more than a month after the cases were reported to the authorities.
• Ex-Stand News editor Patrick Lam lodged an appeal against his conviction for publishing ”seditious” materials, a month after he was sentenced alongside former chief editor Chung Pui-kuen.

September 2024

• Journalism lecturer Allan Au was marked as “on leave” from his position at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, less than a week after four op-eds he wrote for shuttered independent media outlet Stand News were ruled “seditious” in a landmark trial.
• The Court of Appeal overturned a warning by Hong Kong’s media watchdog that a satirical current affairs programme on RTHK had “insulted” the city’s police force. Judge Jeremy Poon ruled that satirical nature of the comments made in the programme meant that the requirement for accuracy, stipulated in the code of practice, was not applicable.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association revealed a spate of harassment and intimidation cases in a “systematic and organised attack” against dozens of Hong Kong reporters. Chief Executive John Lee said “anyone” who required help could seek out the city’s law enforcement agencies, but stopped short of criticising the harassment.
• Associated Press photojournalist Louise Delmotte was denied entry to Hong Kong, months after an extension of her work visa was rejected by the city’s immigration authorities. Delmotte had won multiple photojournalism awards in the city, including for her exclusive shots of pro-democracy figure Jimmy Lai in a maximum security prison last August.
• Former chief editor of shuttered Hong Kong media outlet Stand News Chung Pui-kuen was jailed for one year and nine months over publishing “seditious” materials. Stand News’ former acting chief editor Patrick Lam, who was initially handed 14 months in jail, walked free after the judge considered Lam’s poor health and the time he had spent in pre-trial detention. The judges ruled that the two editors had not been conducting genuine journalism, “but participating in the so-called resistance.”

August 2024

• David Neuberger, an overseas non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal, withdrew from his position on an advisory board to an international press freedom NGO, days after he was on a panel that denied media tycoon Jimmy Lai and six other democrats an appeal over a 2019 protest.
• The chief editor of Ming Pao urged columnists to be “prudent” and “law-abiding” when writing for the newspaper, warning that otherwise, “crisis may come”. The memo read: “For Ming Pao to conduct itself and its mission in Hong Kong’s new era, as well as to exercise the role of the fourth estate, is a heavy responsibility and a long path that requires extra caution.”
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association issued its annual press freedom index, which recorded a rating of 25 out of 100, the lowest since the survey was first conducted in 2013. Reporters said they were hesitant to criticise the government and that it had become harder for the media to function as a watchdog and to access information.
• Chinese journalist Haze Fan was refused a visa to work at Bloomberg’s Hong Kong bureau, “without explanation.” Fan was previously detained in China.
• Ex-chief editor of independent Hong Kong media outlet Stand News Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam were found guilty of sedition, marking the first such conviction of journalists in Hong Kong since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Judge Kwok Wai-kin ruled that Stand News was “a tool to smear and slander central and [Hong Kong] government” during the 2019 protests.

July 2024

• Chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association Selina Cheng was fired by The Wall Street Journal, weeks after she took the helm at the union. She said the American newspaper had told her that its employees should not be seen as advocating for press freedom “in a place like Hong Kong.”
• The organiser of the 2024 Hong Kong Book Fair ordered exhibitors not to sell certain book titles at the fair, citing complaints. Boundary Bookstore and Bbluesky were ordered to pull several titles, including some by veteran journalist Allan Au and former pro-democracy lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun.
• The Court of Appeal rejected jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s application to take his bid to hire a British lawyer to the city’s apex court. The 76-year-old wanted to challenge an appeal court’s ruling in April, when it sided with a decision from the Committee for Safeguarding National ‍Security that barred him from hiring a British lawyer for his ongoing national security trial.

June 2024

• Selina Cheng of The Wall Street Journal was elected to lead the Hong Kong Journalists Association, as Channel C’s Ronson Chan stepped down as chair. Two candidates – Preston Cheung, who worked for non-profit organisation Justice Centre Hong Kong and the BBC’s Danny Vincent – said they wished to drop out of the race for Executive Committee seats.
• The executive editor of The New York Times criticised the “corrosive effect” of Hong Kong’s national security laws on press freedom during an awards ceremony in the city, but said that local news media continued to produce impactful coverage despite facing such challenges.
• Hongkongers’ trust in the news “increased substantially,” rising to 55 per cent of those surveyed for an annual study of news consumption habits, the highest since the city was first examined in 2017,  according to a report released by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
• Hong Kong police condemned claims from the Hong Kong Journalists Association that the press union’s chair Ronson Chan had received an “unreasonable warning” from an officer while covering the 35th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

May 2024

• Indian cartoonist Rachita Taneja and Hong Kong’s Wong Kei-kwan, better known as Zunzi, were awarded the biennial Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award on May 3, World Press Freedom Day. Wong published satirical comic strips in Ming Pao for 24 years before the comic was suspended in May 2023.
• Chief Executive John Lee said the press was free to “ask questions” but not provoke conflicts or make slanderous remarks, while speaking at a media awards ceremony.
• The Wall Street Journal said it would shift its Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore. The US newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, said in a letter to staff that the shift would also involve an unspecified number of layoffs.
• Hong Kong again ranked low in an annual press freedom ranking as Reporters Without Borders cited an “unprecedented series of setbacks,” including newsroom closures and journalist arrests under Beijing’s national security law.

April 2024

• Taipei-based Advocacy Officer Aleksandra Bielakowska of Reporters Without Borders was denied entry to Hong Kong after she was detained, searched and questioned for six hours at the airport. RSF said the move marked a “new decline” in the already poor press freedom climate in the territory.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association was forced to move a fundraising concert online. An auction was supposed to be held at the concert to raise funds for the union.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association was allowed to mount a legal challenge against the Transport Department’s policy restricting media access to vehicle ownership records.

March 2024

• The Safeguarding National Security Ordinance took effect on March 23, after being passed into law by Hong Kong’s opposition-free legislature four days earlier. Known as Article 23, authorities said it was needed to plug loopholes left by Beijing’s security law, while United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that “such provisions readily lead to self-censorship and chilling of legitimate speech and conduct, in respect of matters of public interest on which open debate is vital.”
• Andy Li, one of the 12 Hong Kong fugitives caught by China’s coastguard in August 2020 while trying to flee to Taiwan, took the stand in media mogul Jimmy Lai’s national security trial. Testifying against the Apple Daily founder, Li said that Lai’s “radical” stance was common knowledge and that he had financed a global advertising campaign.
• Bloomberg admitted an error in reporting that Hong Kong planned to ban some social media under its new security law, as the government condemned the “false report” and denied any such intention.
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong removed copies of the University Community Press from campus, saying the publication was “unauthorised” and could not be displayed without permission. The publication, formerly known as CUHK Student Press, was managed by the student union before the body was forced to shutter in 2021.
• Radio Free Asia closed its Hong Kong office over staff safety concerns after Article 23 was enacted. The US-funded news outlet said that it no longer had full-time staff in Hong Kong and has closed its physical office, citing “concerns about the safety of RFA staff and reporters.”
• Hong Kong authorities condemned the BBC’s reporting on Article 23, saying its report about the remission of sentences for security law convicts was “extremely misleading,” and condemned “fact-twisting” remarks by what it deemed anti-China organisations quoted in the report.

February 2024

• Ex-Apple Daily publisher Chan Pui-man took the stand in media mogul Jimmy Lai’s national security trial, saying Lai told Apple Daily to play up the business sector’s concerns regarding the Beijing-imposed national security law in its coverage. She also said that Apple Daily had launched its English version to rally international support.
• Justice minister Paul Lam said the press should be “cautious” and consider whether they were “abetting” Hong Kong activists they were interviewing. Interviews with overseas Hongkongers who are wanted by the authorities may amount to giving them a platform to express views in breach of national security, he said.
• Ronson Chan, chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, said the “vague” legislative proposal for Article 23 had caused journalists working in the city to feel like they were in danger. Citing a survey conducted by the press union, he said more than 75 per cent of journalists believed Article 23 would only have a negative impact on press freedom.

January 2024

• Media mogul Jimmy Lai pleaded not guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces and publishing “seditious” materials in his closely-watched national security trial. The pro-democracy figure has been detained since December 2020.
• Hong Kong police slammed US-funded media outlet Radio Free Asia for quoting self-exiled former lawmaker Ted Hui’s “slander” against the police force, urging the news organisation not to give a platform to “criminals who make false statements.”
• Lawmaker Doreen Kong said Hong Kong’s new arrangements for journalists wishing to access the government’s vehicle registry were inconsistent with the city’s constitutional guarantees of press freedom. The revision was made in light of the Court of Final Appeal’s decision to acquit investigative journalist Bao Choy of making false statements to access the city’s vehicle registry for an investigation into a 2019 mob attack.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association said the new rules governing access to the vehicle registry would hamper reporting, as the Transport Department accused the union of making a “false accusation” against the authorities.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association rejected “untruthful remarks” from security chief Chris Tang, who said the press group did not represent the Hong Kong media industry.
• Ex-Apple Daily publisher Cheung Kim-hung took the stand in Jimmy Lai’s national security trial to testify against his former employer.

December 2023

• The HKJA raised concerns after Japanese media reported that South China Morning Post (SCMP) reporter Minnie Chan had gone missing after a work trip to China. Responding to an enquiry from HKFP, SCMP said Chan was on personal leave concerning a private matter and also threatened legal action.
• The SCMP withdrew an opinion piece after being unable to verify the writer’s credentials.

November 2023

• The verdict in the trial against two former editors of now-defunct news outlet Stand News was postponed again pending a higher court’s ruling, expected in 2024.
• The HKJA expressed “deep regret” that reporters were not allowed to interview attendees at an international finance summit organised by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

October 2023

• A Hong Kong judge called for an investigation after prosecutors claimed that video footage linked to a rioting case during the 2019 Yuen Long mob attacks had been released by an online media outlet ahead of the trial.
• Net satisfaction with press freedom in Hong Kong stood at negative 8 per cent, while 13 per cent of people believed the local news media had given full play to the freedom of speech, according to a PORI survey.
• Google received a request from the Hong Kong Police Force to remove 5 videos featuring “The Hong Konger,“ a documentary about pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai from YouTube, a report read.

September 2023

• The Communications Authority rejected complaints against a now-deleted RTHK documentary that examined the 2019 Yuen Long mob attacks.
• Sebastien Lai, the son of detained media mogul Jimmy Lai, spoke at a UN event on media freedom, as the government slammed the occasion as “political manipulation.”
• Ronson Chan, the head of the HKJA, was found guilty of obstructing a police officer while reporting last September and was sentenced to five days in prison before being granted bail pending appeal.
• The Court of Appeal heard the HKJA and the RTHK Staff Union’s joint appeal against the city’s communications regulator’s decision to issue a warning over RTHK’s satirical programme Headliner.

August 2023

• US photojournalist Matthew Connors, who covered the 2019 protests and unrest, said that he was denied entry to Hong Kong when he tried to visit for tourism purposes.
• Press freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders criticised the Hong Kong authorities after Swiss photojournalist Marc Progin was faced with HK$500,000 in legal costs despite being cleared of a public disorder charge.
• The national security trial of pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai was delayed again to December to ensure that one of the handpicked judges will have finished presiding over another landmark national security case involving 47 democrats.

• The HKJA said it will offer assistance to employees of local newspaper Sky Post, which will soon publish its final print edition.

July 2023

• Government-funded broadcaster RTHK suspended an LGBTQ-related radio programme after 17 years, the host of the programme said on its official Facebook page. 
• The West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts received written closing statements in the trial against journalist Ronson Chan, who stands accused of obstructing a police officer.

• A court ruled that journalists will be allowed to report on matters related to 2019 protest anthem Glory to Hong Kong, should the government’s bid to ban unlawful acts relating to the song be successful.
• Authorities proposed that programmes about national education, national identity, and those which promote a “correct understanding” of the national security law could be exempt from an impartiality clause requiring “even-handedness” when opposing points of view are presented.
• The government watchdog rejected HKFP’s complaint against the Information Services Department over their handling of an unexplained media ban at press event, finding no evidence of maladministration.
• HKJA said Hong Kong’s press freedom index dipped further, largely due to journalists being hesitant to criticise the central government.
• A survey conducted by the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) found that almost 70 per cent of journalists in Hong Kong say they have self-censored in their own writing.

• Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan claimed there was no conflict between the media’s journalistic work and the Beijing-imposed national security law.
• Japanese journalist Yoshiaki Ogawa, known for his coverage of Hong Kong’s protests, was barred from entering Hong Kong days before the 26th anniversary of its Handover to China.
• China’s representative intervened at the UN in an unsuccessful effort to stop the son of detained media tycoon Jimmy Lai from testifying.

June 2023

• A Hong Kong press group urged the city’s police to provide an explanation after its former chairperson was led away by officers while she was reporting on the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
• The Hong Kong government condemned US politicians’ calls for a joint effort with the UK to prioritise the release of pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai by sanctioning Hong Kong officials, prosecutors, and judges involved in national security law detentions.
• Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai filed an appeal against the High Court’s rejection of his attempt to challenge a national security committee decision which effectively barred a foreign lawyer from representing him.
• Journalist Bao Choy’s conviction for making false statements to access vehicle records was quashed after five judges ruled unanimously in favour of her appeal at the city’s top court. Her sentence was also set aside.
• Chief Executive John Lee said that authorities would review the top court’s judgement that saw journalist Bao Choy’s conviction quashed to “improve” procedures related to accessing vehicle records.
• The District Court heard closing arguments in the trial against two former editors of now-defunct news outlet Stand News, with the verdict to be handed down in October 2023. 
• The Court of Appeal blocked media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s bid to challenge a national security search warrant of his phones, which he said contained protected journalistic materials, at the city’s top court.

• The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association said it was looking to intervene in a legal bid by the government to ban all forms of the protest song Glory to Hong Kong, in the hopes of gaining an exemption for media reporting. A statement said the press group wants to “protect the work of journalists.”
• Citizens’ Radio, a pro-democracy pirate radio station, ceased operating on June 30 after its founder said the station’s bank account had been frozen.
• A prominent Chinese financial journalist who compared the country’s economic problems to the Great Depression was banned from social media.
• Hong Kong may drop plans for a “fake news” law, Chief Executive John Lee suggested, saying the problem can be tackled by other means.

May 2023

• The government watchdog agreed to investigate HKFP’s complaint against the Information Services Department over their handling of a press event, which saw several government-registered outlets barred from attendance without explanation.
• Blocking pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s overseas counsel from representing him in his national security trial is “persecution not prosecution,” his lawyer said in an application to halt the trial. 
• Chief Executive John Lee told a reporter that the pro-democracy demonstrations and unrest of 2019 should be referred to as the “black violence,” not “protests.”
• Hong Kong ranked 140th among the 180 regions at the Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking released on World Press Freedom Day.

• Hong Kong journalist Bao Choy appealed to the city’s top court against her conviction linked to checking vehicle registration records for a documentary about the Yuen Long attacks in 2019.
• Hong Kong transport news site Transit Jam ceased operations, its owner announced, making it the latest outlet to disappear in the wake of the security law. The closure came days after its founder was targeted in the state-run press.
• After 40 years, Hong Kong’s most prominent political cartoonist Zunzi had his comic strip suspended after a satirical post was criticised by government bodies.
• Hong Kong’s security minister hit back at the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association after it said the suspension of a long-standing political cartoon strip following repeated government complaints showed that the city “could not tolerate critical voices.”
• Books by satirical cartoonist Zunzi disappeared from Hong Kong public library listings, after his comic strip was axed by newspaper Ming Pao on Wednesday following criticism from an official.
• The defence questioned whether an exchange between the head of Hong Kong’s largest journalists’ group, Ronson Chan, and a plainclothes police officer could have happened as described, as the trial against Chan began.
• Over 100 international media leaders around the world expressed support for detained Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong in a joint statement on Tuesday organised by Reporters Without Borders.
• The head of Hong Kong’s largest journalists’ group said he feared a privacy breach when he was asked to show his identity card by a plainclothes officer, a court heard.
• Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance rejected attempts by pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai to challenge a decision made by Hong Kong’s national security committee relating to the admission of an overseas lawyer for his trial.
• A lifestyle editor who was not from a traditional news correspondent background was elected as president of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club, after he ran unopposed in the leadership race.
• Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club raised concerns after the government inexplicably barred several media outlets from a National Security Education Day event on April 15. It was their first press freedom statement of 2013.
• Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s bid to halt the national security trial against him was rejected by the city’s Court of First Instance.

• Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club devised a set of guidelines for releasing statements on press freedom issues, which includes seeking legal advice and contacting government departments ahead of publishing.
• Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was expected to face an 83-day national security trial, a court heard.

April 2023

• Hong Kong’s security chief criticised Ming Pao over a “misleading” comic strip about the government’s plan to spend HK$5.2 billion on a new communications system. 
• Chung Pui-kuen, former top Stand News editor, completed his testimony in his sedition trial as the case was adjourned to June for closing arguments. 
• Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee refused to comment on reports received by the city’s largest press group that reporters had been followed by unknown men.
• Hong Kong journalists who have emigrated faced a number of difficulties when trying to start their careers in media overseas, according to a report published by an overseas journalists’ body.
• Social media platform Twitter slapped Hong Kong’s government-backed broadcaster RTHK with a “state-affiliated media” label.
• RTHK said it would “follow up” with Twitter, after the social media platform added a “state-affiliated media” label to the news outlet’s official account.
• Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai filed a legal bid against the government’s decision to reject any further work visa applications from an overseas counsel he had hired for his national security case.
• Hong Kong’s pensions fund authority demanded that American newspaper The Wall Street Journal retract “misinformation” in an op-ed about holders of British National Overseas passports’ access to their pensions.
• The Hong Kong government barred several government-registered media outlets from covering a National Security Education Day event, ignoring emails and evading questions by phone when challenged as to why.

• The son and overseas lawyers of Jimmy Lai urged the United Nations to condemn the prosecution on “trumped-up” charges of the pro-democracy media tycoon, sparking criticism of them from the Hong Kong government.
• “The media landscape in Hong Kong has been as vibrant as ever” following the implementation of the national security law, the government said in a criticism of a UK all-party parliamentary group report. 

March 2023

• Coconuts wound down its Hong Kong news site, citing commercial and journalistic challenges. The announcement came days after a new general manager took over the publishing group.
• The founder of an independent Hong Kong news publication and two others pleaded guilty to selling a “seditious” book at a Lunar New Year fair.
• HKJA called on the police to “maintain professionalism” while on duty, after a journalist was reportedly pushed by an officer while filming outside a courthouse.
• HKJA condemned the harassment and surveillance of local journalists, after an HKFP court reporter was followed from her home to her workplace for over an hour by two men with earpieces.

• HKJA said it received several recent reports of journalists being tailed, as police slammed the group over “unverified speculations” that those following journalists were suspected of being members of law enforcement.
• Two ex-Stand News editors charged under the colonial-era sedition law continued to stand trial.

February 2023

• Monitoring the authorities is the duty of the media, pro-establishment newspaper Oriental Daily said in an editorial after it was criticised by the police for a video commentary on the force’s performance.
• Hong Kong journalist Bao Choy vowed to “monitor the rich and powerful” and “seek truth” with her newly launched media outlet The Collective HK.
• Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai asked the High Court to prevent Beijing’s recent interpretation of the national security law from affecting an earlier ruling that allowed him to be represented by a UK lawyer at his upcoming trial.
• Chinese activists – including dissident artist Badiucao – were approached by social media users falsely claiming to be journalists from Reuters, the news agency reported on Tuesday.
• The trial against two former Stand News top editors charged under the colonial-era sedition law continued as the prosecution carried on the cross-examination of Chung Pui-kuen, ex-editor-in-chief. 
• The Hong Kong government submitted a proposal to introduce legislative amendments which would require local courts to obtain a certificate from the city’s leader before considering whether to allow foreign counsel to act in national security cases.

January 2023

• Defunct independent Hong Kong news outlet Citizen News removed all of the content from its website and social media platforms, as the online publication marked a year since it ceased operations.
• Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao was criticised by one of the city’s top officials over a comic strip about Beijing’s recent interpretation of the national security law.
• Hong Kong broadcaster TVB dropped all BBC channels from its streaming service.
• Britain will stand up to “Chinese aggression” and defend Hong Kong’s freedoms, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed after his government intervened in the case of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
• A committee on safeguarding national security in Hong Kong urged the city’s government to change the law as quickly as possible so it can ban a British lawyer from representing former pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai at his security trial.
• Hong Kong’s Immigration Department barred freelance photographer Michiko Kiseki from the city last month.
• The local legal team representing jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai in his high-profile national security trial said it was not “professionally associated” with an international group of lawyers who reportedly met with a UK minister over Lai’s case.
• Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee said there were people using journalism as a cover to pursue political aims, personal benefit, or “launder money” in the city. 

• Hong Kong’s top court allowed journalist Bao Choy to appeal her conviction over accessing car licence information for an investigative documentary about a mob attack in Yuen Long in July 2019.
• The government watchdog rejected a complaint filed by HKFP related to the authorities’ refusal to disclose their media invite list for Chief Executive John Lee’s inauguration last July 1.
• Chen Zhiming, chief editor of Hong Kong magazine Exclusive Character, was reportedly missing in mainland China for over four months.
• A Hong Kong reporter who was allegedly shot at with a police projectile during a protest in 2019 expressed disappointment that his complaint was rejected.
• The sedition trial against two ex-chief editors of defunct media outlet Stand News continued, as the court heard testimony from one of the defendants, former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen.

December 2022

• The national security trial of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was adjourned on its scheduled starting date until December 13 as Hong Kong waits for Beijing to “clarify” the law as to whether overseas lawyers are allowed to appear in such cases.
• Defendants charged under the national security law could be sent to mainland China for trial if they cannot find a lawyer in Hong Kong, the city’s top delegate to Beijing’s advisory body said.
• US-based NGO Human Rights Watch announced it would co-host the Human Rights Press Awards after Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) cancelled the event earlier this year.
• Jimmy Lai, the founder of defunct pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, was sentenced to five years and nine months in jail after being convicted of fraud.
• The jailing of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai over fraud charges “has nothing to do with freedom of the press or freedom of speech,” the Hong Kong government said, following criticism from the US.
• Chung Pui-kuen, a former top editor of Hong Kong news outlet Stand News facing sedition charges, was granted bail after spending almost a year in custody pending trial.
• The national security trial against Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai was adjourned until September 25, 2023.
• Proceedings against former editors of independent outlet Stand News were “unfair” and “not transparent,” the defence argued, as the court sought to rule on whether the discovery of previously undisclosed evidence was grounds to terminate the trial.
• An additional six articles published by the shuttered independent media outlet Stand News were flagged by the prosecution for potentially violating Hong Kong’s colonial-era sedition law.
• A proposal asking Beijing to “clarify” whether overseas counsellors are allowed to take part in national security court cases in Hong Kong was presented to Beijing’s top decision making body.
• China’s top law-making body gave Hong Kong leader John Lee the power to bar foreign lawyers from national security trials, removing the decision from the city’s courts.

November 2022

• The Trust Project, an international consortium which promotes greater accountability and transparency in the news industry, froze its Hong Kong operations, HKFP reported.
• Hong Kong’s Department of Justice appealed against a court’s decision to let a UK barrister represent media tycoon Jimmy Lai in his upcoming high-profile national security trial.
• Hong Kong’s Security Bureau “expressed deep regret” over “a misleading and fact-twisting commentary” published by Ming Pao on the government’s decision to ban cannabidiol, commonly known as CBD, from February next year.
• Hong Kong journalist Bao Choy lost an appeal against her conviction over assessing public data for a documentary about a mob attack in July 2019.

• The Hong Kong Journalists Association said it was “disappointed and worried” by the court’s decision to reject an appeal filed by journalist Bao Choy, convicted over accessing public data for a documentary about a mob attack in July 2019.
• Hong Kong’s Department of Justice lost an appeal against the High Court’s decision to let a UK barrister represent media tycoon Jimmy Lai in his upcoming high-profile national security trial.
• A Hong Kong court’s decision to allow a senior British lawyer to represent jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai sparked a chorus of condemnation from powerful Beijing loyalist voices.
• Hong Kong’s taxpayer-funded broadcaster RTHK should “cooperate seamlessly” with other government departments, including the police, said its chief Eddie Cheung in an interview with the city’s security minister.
• A Hong Kong citizen journalist who waved the British colonial-era flag while the Chinese national anthem was being played was jailed for three months for insulting the anthem, following the first conviction under a new law.
• Hong Kong’s justice minister refused to remark on comments made by former chief executive Leung Chun-ying, who called a ruling from the city’s appeal court allowing a UK lawyer to represent media tycoon Jimmy Lai in an upcoming national security trial “absurd.”
• Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was set to apply to halt his high-profile national security trial, which was scheduled to begin in just over two weeks’ time, Lai’s legal representative said.
• Hong Kong’s Department of Justice hoped to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal against allowing a UK barrister to represent media tycoon Jimmy Lai in his high-profile national security trial, scheduled to start in just two weeks’ time.
• Hong Kong journalist Bao Choy furthered her chance of appealing her conviction over accessing car licence information for an investigative documentary about a mob attack in Yuen Long in July 2019.
• Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal refused to grant the secretary for justice a final chance to appeal against a court decision to allow a UK barrister to represent media mogul Jimmy Lai in his high-profile national security trial scheduled to start on December 1.
• Six former staff members of Hong Kong pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily and its parent company, Next Digital, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit collusion charge in a landmark national security case.
• Hong Kong’s Department of Justice filed an application to the city’s top court to appeal against a decision to allow a UK barrister to represent media tycoon Jimmy Lai in a high-profile national security trial.

• State-controlled pro-Beijing newspapers in Hong Kong fiercely criticised the decision to let a senior British barrister represent Jimmy Lai in his high-profile national security trial, quoting one pro-China figure as saying the hearing should be shifted to the mainland if necessary.
• Pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai had no financial motive in breaching the terms of the lease for his Apple Daily newspaper headquarters by operating a consultancy from the same building, a court which convicted him of fraud was told.
• Hong Kong’s top court adjourned its decision on whether to allow the Department of Justice to appeal against an earlier ruling that let media tycoon Jimmy Lai hire a UK lawyer for his national security trial.
• Patrick Lam, a former top editor of defunct Hong Kong outlet Stand News, was granted bail after his lawyer called on the court to terminate the Stand News sedition trial over improper handling of evidence.
• Hong Kong’s top court will not allow the Department of Justice to appeal against an earlier court decision admitting a UK barrister to represent media tycoon Jimmy Lai in a high-profile national security trial.
• Beijing will be invited to determine whether overseas counsels are allowed to take part in national security trials in Hong Kong, Chief Executive John Lee said.
• Hong Kong’s secretary for justice will seek to adjourn a national security trial involving pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai – two days before it was slated to begin – while awaiting Beijing’s proposed interpretation of the city’s national security law.
• Beijing’s power to interpret the national security law “can be used sparingly,” the head of the Hong Kong Bar Association said.
• The lease of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club was renewed for three years, with a newly added “standard” clause regarding national security. 

October 2022

• Hong Kong police expressed “strong concerns” over a satirical cartoon published in Ming Pao that contained what they called “misleading content,” according to local media reports.
• An international journalists’ group urged the global community to continue its condemnation of the “media offensive” conducted by the Hong Kong government in a report about the city’s press freedom published earlier.

• Hong Kong police can search journalistic materials stored on phones belonging to media tycoon Jimmy Lai, seized under a national security warrant, the High Court ruled.
• Hong Kong’s High Court allowed media tycoon Jimmy Lai to hire a barrister from the UK to handle his high-profile national security trial, saying that it was “clearly in the public interest.”
• Jimmy Lai, the founder of defunct Hong Kong pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, was convicted of fraud after being found to have violated the terms of the lease for the newspaper’s headquarters.
• Two reporters quit the South China Morning Post last year after a senior editor axed their three-month investigation into human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, according to an editor who resigned shortly after.
• The South China Morning Post sent a warning to a former editor who resigned along with two reporters after their three-part series on rights abuses in Xinjiang was axed by management last year.
• Hong Kong authorities hit back at the US following its statement on pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai’s fraud case, calling the remarks made “purely politically oriented” and far from the truth.

September 2022

• Ronson Chan, the chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, was arrested while reporting on a home owners’ committee meeting for online outlet Channel C.
• China lashed out at “slander” by Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club after the club expressed concern over the arrest of the head of the city’s largest journalist group.

• Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Andy Li and paralegal Chan Tsz-wah, who pleaded guilty more than a year ago to conspiring with media mogul Jimmy Lai, were set to be sentenced after the Apple Daily founder stands trial in December under the Beijing-enacted national security law.
• The Hong Kong police ruled that a complaint filed by a journalist who was allegedly hit by a non-lethal projectile during the 2019 protests was “unsubstantiated.”
• Ronson Chan, the chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, was officially charged with obstructing police officers while reporting.
• Chief Executive John Lee told “patriotic” journalists to “deliver Hong Kong’s latest developments and correct message” to the world when he attended a media sector celebration ahead of China’s upcoming National Day.
• Ronson Chan, the chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, was granted bail after pleading not guilty to obstructing police officers and an alternative charge of obstructing another person lawfully engaged in a public duty.
• Self-proclaimed non-pro-establishment party Path of Democracy appealed to the government to enact a fake news law as part of a broad list of suggestions for Chief Executive John Lee ahead of his policy address.
• Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai filed an appeal against the court’s decision to uphold a national security search warrant on his phones, which he says contain protected journalistic materials.
• Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s request to hire a lawyer from the UK was opposed by the justice minister and a barristers’ group.

August 2022

• Reporting restrictions on proceedings regarding the transfer of criminal cases to the High Court must be lifted if the defendant makes such a request, a Hong Kong court ruled in a landmark judgement.

• Hong Kong’s government watchdog said they will launch a “full investigation” into the Information Services Department’s refusal to disclose the list of media outlets invited to cover July 1 Handover celebrations following a complaint made by HKFP.
• Hong Kong’s detained pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai filed an application for judicial review to try to stop police searching his phones, which he says contain protected journalistic material.
• A group of pro-Beijing Hongkongers urged authorities to launch a national security investigation into US-funded media outlet Radio Free Asia, accusing it of spreading one-sided and “poisonous” information to “imperceptibly influence” the public.
• The national security trial for Jimmy Lai, the founder of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, will proceed without a jury, local media reported.
• Media tycoon Jimmy Lai was set to plead not guilty and stand trial in a national security case, as Hong Kong’s security chief granted three companies linked to the defunct pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily access to their frozen funds to hire legal representatives.
• Hong Kong courts should not blur the line between criminal and civil cases, the District Court heard as the prosecution and defence presented their closing statements during the fraud trial against media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
• Public trust in the credibility of Hong Kong’s media fell to its lowest level in two decades, according to a survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
• Hong Kong’s High Court heard journalist Bao Choy’s appeal against her conviction over accessing public vehicle registration records when she researched and produced an investigative documentary about the Yuen Long mob attack in 2019.
• Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai lost his legal bid to block a national security search warrant for his phones, which he says contain protected journalistic materials.

July 2022

• Disclosing the media invite list for the July 1 leadership inauguration ‘would harm Hong Kong’s security,’ the government claimed.
• Hong Kong democracy has taken a “quantum leap forward,” officials told a United Nations rights committee, during a grilling over the national security law, declining press freedom and other developments in the wake of the 2019 protests.
• Hong Kong’s leader John Lee said journalists are “in the same boat” as him and that he hoped the news sector would join him in promoting the success of One Country, Two Systems to the world.

• Veteran Hong Kong journalist Kevin Lau’s opinion column in Ming Pao was halted. Lau told HKFP that he was retiring.
• A United Nations rights monitor urged Hong Kong to repeal its national security law, citing the “overly broad interpretation” of its provisions and the subsequent violation of free expression in the city.

June 2022

• Hong Kong investigative news wire Factwire announced it was disbanding with immediate effect.
• Hong Kong effectively barred several independent newspapers, international media outlets and news wires from attending the inauguration of incoming leader John Lee, as well as from covering other July 1 events celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Handover.
• The largest press group in Hong Kong expressed “utmost regret” after journalists from at least seven local and international media organisations were denied access to cover events celebrating the 25th anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese rule.
• Photographer Steven Knipp withdrew a photo donated to Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club, saying the club had failed to stand up for press freedom.
• Chief Executive Carrie Lam said during her final press briefing that the platform had allowed her to address public concerns and media enquiries in a timely manner.
• Fewer Hongkongers expressed trust in public broadcaster RTHK, a study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found.
• A court decided that the sedition trial against defunct independent outlet Stand News would start on October 31 and scheduled it to last 20 days.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association held its annual general meeting, in which members approved changes to the group’s constitution to make dissolution easier.
• Hong Kong’s last British governor, Chris Patten, accused Beijing of ‘vengefully’ targeting the city’s freedoms.

May 2022

• Reporters Without Borders said Hong Kong authorities wielded a draconian new security law to silence critical news outlets and jail journalists in its latest report, as the city plummeted down an international press freedom chart.
• Hong Kong’s sole leadership candidate, John Lee, compared press freedom to identity cards, saying that “Hong Kong already has press freedom.”

• Arizona State University’s journalism school will host the Human Rights Press Awards from next year, after Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club axed the event, citing legal “red lines.”
• The president of Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club said that the club still has a “role to play” following its decision to cancel this year’s Human Right Press Awards, citing legal risks.
• Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club overwhelmingly polled in favour of a motion relating to press freedom. More than half of the board members abstained from the vote.
• The ex-acting chief editor of the now-defunct Stand News told a Hong Kong court that he intended to plead not guilty to sedition charges, as the case was adjourned until late June.
• Ronson Chan, chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, said he would leave the city for six months to join the Reuters Institute’s fellowship programme at Oxford University starting in early October.
• Hong Kong national security police demanded that Passion Times, an online news outlet which had ties with a defunct opposition group, remove “sensitive” content.
• The “sensitive” content, which Passion Times was ordered to delete on national security grounds, was pictures of a suggested new “national flag” for Hong Kong, according to local media.
• A Hong Kong citizen journalist was sentenced to one month in jail for behaving in a disorderly manner in a public place on National Security Education Day in 2021.

April 2022

• A poll by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute found that Hongkongers’ satisfaction with press freedom and media outlets in the city dropped to a record low.
• Hong Kong veteran journalist Allan Au was arrested by national security police for allegedly conspiring to publish seditious materials, and was released on bail after spending over 17 hours in police custody.
• The Stand News sedition case was transferred to the District Court, as the outlet’s parent company remained unrepresented in court.
• Hong Kong’s sole chief executive candidate, John Lee, said that press freedom existed in the city, so there was no need to ask him to “defend” it.
• Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club cancelled this year’s Human Rights Press Awards, citing “significant areas of uncertainty” under the law.

• The Foreign Correspondents’ Club’s decision to scrap the Human Rights Press Awards was related to local outlet Stand News winning a number of titles, HKFP was told. 
• Pro-democracy cartoonist Ah To has announced his departure from Hong Kong, saying he would face “great mental stress” if he were to continue to produce political cartoons in the city.
• Hong Kong journalists collectively won the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan’s Freedom of the Press Asia award.
• HKFP was told that the Hong Kong Journalists Association postponed its annual Kam Yiu-yu Press Freedom Award, although the decision to do so was made earlier in the year.
• Keith Richburg, the president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, apologised to the judges of the annual Human Rights Press Awards about the cancellation of the event.

March 2022

• NowTV apologised after a reporter asked authorities how mainland Chinese medics in the city to help fight the fifth wave of Covid-19 patients would be held accountable in the event of a medical mishap.

February 2022

• Hong Kong’s Consumer Council announced it would host the Consumer Rights Reporting Awards independently for the first time since the event launched in 2001, ditching two press groups it had partnered with for more than 20 years.

• A statement signed by 21 Western nations condemned a press freedom crackdown in Hong Kong and the arrests of journalists at the defunct independent media outlet Stand News.
• US-funded news outlet Radio Free Asia announced the suspension of some Cantonese programmes and commentaries, citing concerns about press freedom in Hong Kong and the “red lines” of the national security law.
• An International Federation of Journalists report found that Hong Kong was turning into a “city of fear” where “open discussion is stifled” and the national security law “effectively acts as a tripwire for all journalists.”
• Stand News’ sedition case was adjourned to April. 

January 2022

• Independent Hong Kong media outlet Citizen News announced that they decided to halt operations. They said the decision was to ensure staff safety and was prompted by the authorities’ crackdown on fellow independent newsroom Stand News.
• Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the closures of Stand News and Citizen News in under a week were unrelated to the national security law and press freedom.

• The Registry of Trade Unions launched a probe into the Hong Kong Journalists Association,  asking it to provide answers on how certain events it held were relevant to its objectives.
• Members of Jumbo, a student publication at Hong Kong Baptist University, collectively resigned, citing interference from the university after receiving complaints.

December 2021

• Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK “paused” the social media pages of a dozen programmes, including the axed political satire show Headliner and the popular Hong Kong Connection, which was still in production.
• Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai and the staff of Apple Daily won the Golden Pen of Freedom award.
• Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang threatened the Wall Street Journal over an editorial it published about the city’s first “patriots-only” legislative race. 
• Reporters Without Borders said press freedom in Hong Kong was in “free fall” in its latest report on China.
• Hong Kong’s High Court ordered that Next Digital Limited – the parent company of the now-defunct Apple Daily – must be wound up.
• RTHK broadcasters outside of the news department were ordered not to discuss the University of Hong Kong’s removal of a Tiananmen Massacre statue.

• Over 200 national security police officers were deployed to raid the offices of non-profit online news outlet Stand News, while seven people linked to the outlet were arrested.
• Hong Kong independent media outlet Stand News announced its decision to shut down, following a newsroom raid and seven arrests. Its website and social media pages were deleted.
• Two former chief editors of digital media outlet Stand News were denied bail by a court after they were accused of publishing seditious materials.
• Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng said that criticisms from foreign politicians and organisations over the arrest of figures connected to Stand News were “baseless” and “in blatant violation of international law.”

November 2021

• The Consumer Council cancelled an annual consumer reporting awards contest co-organised with the Hong Kong Journalists Association.
• An anonymous survey conducted by the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club found that close to half of the respondents considered leaving Hong Kong.
• The Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed “strong disapproval” of the member survey conducted by the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club. 
• Digital media outlet DB Channel announced plans to shut down operations in Hong Kong after the channel’s co-founder Frankie Fung was denied bail pending trial under the national security law.
• Hong Kong police closed an investigation into a baseball bat attack on an Epoch Times reporter, with no one facing charges.
• Hong Kong digital news outlet Stand News was nominated for the Reporters Without Borders 2021 Press Freedom Prize for Independence.
• The Economist said that the Hong Kong authorities refused to renew a work visa for their correspondent Sue-Lin Wong, without providing an explanation.

• Chief Executive Carrie Lam refused to explain why a journalist from The Economist was denied a work visa renewal, saying any government has discretion on the issuing of visas. 
• The Hong Kong government is conducting a legal study on the problem of “fake news,” Chief Secretary John Lee said.
• Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK removed from its website a news report about Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who accused a former top Chinese official of sexual assault.
• Chief Executive Carrie Lam vowed to “proactively plug loopholes” in the city’s internet regulation to ensure “fake news” circulating online does not “harm society.”
• Hong Kong’s High Court partially upheld a decision made by the Communication Authority against public broadcaster RTHK, which stated that it presented factual inaccuracies and denigrated the police force in a now-axed satirical show.

October 2021

• Two Hong Kong news organisations were barred from attending a reception organised by the local media sector in celebration of the upcoming Chinese National Day.
• Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK refused to say why it deleted a story from its website about proposals for a new law criminalising insults against public officers.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association apologised for the alleged theft of its members’ personal information, after a Beijing-backed newspaper published shredded documents taken from the office trash.
• Police rejected 26 out of 27 complaints submitted by the Hong Kong Journalists Association as “not pursuable.”
• The Independent Police Complaints Council accused the Hong Kong Journalists Association of airing misinformation over misconduct investigations.

• Two registries announced new rules tightening public access to government records to step up the protection of personal data privacy.
• Hong Kong democrat Alan Leong was dropped by Ming Pao as a writer for the newspaper’s legal column, ending an 18-year term.

September 2021

• All remaining directors of Next Digital, the parent company of Apple Daily, resigned and called for the company’s liquidation, citing a “climate of fear” created by the national security law.
• Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK said it is committed to promoting public debate following reports that it axed another current affairs programme, the 41-year-old City Forum.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association hit back at criticism from the Secretary for Security, who accused it of infiltrating campuses to “rope in” student journalists as members.
• The head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association said that the security chief’s suggestion that the group could make public its members’ information may be in violation of the Privacy Ordinance.

• A Hong Kong cartoonist apologised to police for a satirical comic strip which linked the Junior Police Call organisation to a controversy over the Hong Kong Journalists Association.
• Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK refused to comment on the whereabouts of its English-language radio presenter Hugh Chiverton after he disappeared from the airwaves without explanation.
• Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary asked a court to wind up Next Digital Limited, the parent company of Apple Daily, in the “public interest.” 
• Public broadcaster RTHK told its staff to avoid contact with foreign governments or political organisations under new editorial guidelines, as it vowed to prevent acts that endanger national security.

August 2021

• Digital Hong Kong news outlet Initium became the first media organisation to quit the city following the implementation of the national security law, as the outlet moved to Singapore.
• HKFP columnist and ex-RTHK broadcaster Steve Vines left Hong Kong for the UK, citing the security law crackdown.
• Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK deleted all of its English-language Twitter archive and prevented readers from “replying” to its tweets, citing resource constraints.
• Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that public broadcaster RTHK will partner with China Media Group – the holding group for CCTV and China National Radio –  to air more programmes.
• Beijing-controlled Wen Wei Po called for the Hong Kong Journalists Association to be regulated.

July 2021

• Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK axed the current affairs programme The Pulse, hosted by veteran journalist Steve Vines.

• NGO Reporters Without Borders released a report accusing Chief Executive Carrie Lam of trampling on the city’s press freedom, and listed her as a “predator.”
• Hong Kong Journalists Association published its annual report saying that the city’s press freedom was “in tatters.”
• Local media reported that a senior executive at Now News resigned citing “turbulent times” for Hong Kong’s media.
• Staff at public broadcaster RTHK were ordered to refer to Taiwan as part of China.
• A sexual assault complaint against a Hong Kong police officer who allegedly touched the breast of a female journalist was dropped after the force failed to identify the officer. 
• Three former Apple Daily journalists had their bail revoked by national security police. 
• Hong Kong Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui told lawmakers that the government was mulling plans to implement a “fake news” law.
• Four former Apple Daily journalists charged under the national security law were denied bail in court. 
• Hong Kong national security police confiscated the travel documents of a reporter who filmed a knife attack against an officer. 
• Two former editors of pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily charged under the national security law withdrew their bail review applications.

• The Hong Kong government appointed a special fraud investigator to scrutinise pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily’s parent company, Next Digital. 

June 2021

• RTHK axed another current affairs programme, “Letter to Hong Kong”.
• It is announced that pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai is to stand trial on national security charges in Hong Kong’s High Court, where the maximum penalty is life imprisonment.
• A Hong Kong court ruled that a local female reporter was guilty of resisting a police officer in the execution of their duties while covering a protest in Mong Kok in May 2020.
• Hong Kong’s Department of Justice dropped a charge of improperly accessing public records against a reporter for Beijing-owned newspaper Ta Kung Pao.
• Hundreds of Hong Kong police officers raided the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and arrested five senior executives on suspicion of violating the national security law.
• Hong Kong’s security chief John Lee accused pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily of using journalism as a tool to endanger national security.
• Two senior executives from the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily were charged under the national security law for allegedly conspiring to collude with foreign powers.

• Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK fired outspoken pro-democracy radio host Tsang Chi-ho.
• Next Digital CEO Cheung Kim-hung and Apple Daily Editor-in-Chief Ryan Law, facing national security charges, were denied bail at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts.
• Pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper warned it was unable to pay staff and was at imminent risk of closure after the government froze company assets, citing the national security law.
• Apple Daily’s finance section, its English edition, Twitter account and video department ceased operations following an exodus of staff.
• Police arrested an Apple Daily editorial writer under the national security law for allegedly conspiring to collude with foreign forces.
• Hong Kong pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily decided to halt all operations in the city and published its last edition of the newspaper on June 24.
• Two Apple Daily executives arrested on suspicion of endangering national security sought a court order for Hong Kong police to return journalistic and privileged legal material seized during their arrest and in a raid on the newspaper.
• Hong Kong national security police arrested a former editorial writer for Apple Daily at the airport as he was about to fly to Britain.
• Independent digital outlet Stand News announced it will remove opinion articles and columns it published before May and stop accepting donations in order to reduce risks under the national security law.
• Human Rights Watch released a report saying that basic rights and freedoms in Hong Kong were being “erased” under the security law.
• Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK sacked veteran journalist Allan Au from hosting a phone-in radio programme.
• Veteran Hong Kong journalist and commentator Steve Vines announced his departure from public broadcaster RTHK.

May 2021

• RTHK began removing shows from its YouTube channel and Facebook page a year after they air. It deleted its archive of content over a year old.

• The Hong Kong Press Freedom Index hit a record low, with close to 99 per cent of respondents saying the Beijing-enacted national security law harmed the city’s free press.
• RTHK refused to extend an employment contract for journalist Nabela Qoser following an extended probation period. Qoser was known for her vigorous questioning of officials.
• Hong Kong journalist Bao Choy filed an appeal against a magistrate’s decision to convict her after she accessed public records to investigate police behaviour during the “7.21” mob attack at Yuen Long MTR station in 2019.
• An executive producer who led Hong Kong’s longest-running TV documentary programme, Hong Kong Connection, resigned from RTHK.
• Epoch Times reporter Leung Zhen was attacked by a man wielding a baseball bat from a passing vehicle.
• Assets belonging to pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai were frozen by the Hong Kong authorities.
• Trading in shares of Next Digital, the parent company of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was suspended at the company’s request.
• Hong Kong’s Security Secretary John Lee denied that the freezing of the assets of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai represented a crackdown on press freedom.
• RTHK denied replacing an episode of Hong Kong Connection about the proposed shake-up of the city’s electoral system following local media reports that it had been axed.
• RTHK axed a story about the annual Tiananmen Massacre anniversary long-distance run from its news show “LegCo review”.

• WhatsApp chats which democrat Claudia Mo had sent to media organisations like the BBC and the New York Times outlining her fears for freedom of speech in the city were deemed by a High Court judge to be sufficient grounds to deny her bail.

April 2021

• RTHK said that the Hong Kong government has the power to surcharge its employees for the cost of axed programmes.
• Amnesty International Hong Kong said the state of human rights and freedoms in Hong Kong had deteriorated under the national security law in 2020.
• The public perception of the independence and credibility of Hong Kong’s news media dropped to a record low, according to an opinion poll.
• Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the Hong Kong government is the “biggest victim of fake news,” after pledging to submit a bill to tackle “doxxing” within the current legislative term.
• RTHK dropped veteran journalist Steve Vines as a regular current affairs commentator on its Morning Brew programme after more than ten years.
• The Epoch Times’s printing presses were ransacked by a gang of men wielding sledgehammers.
• Hong Kong journalist Yvonne Tong, who famously challenged a WHO official, resigned from RTHK.
• Reporters Without Borders East Asia warned that silence from the Hong Kong authorities over an attack on the Epoch Times is fostering a “climate of suspicion” against journalists and “encouraging” violent attacks on the media.
• Police chief Chris Tang said that media outlets that endanger the security of Hong Kong by publishing “fake news” will be investigated.
• State-owned newspaper Ta Kung Pao, in a full-page cover story, accused Apple Daily and other pro-democracy “yellow media” of “constantly creating fake news.”
• Reporters without Borders warned that the national security law posed a “grave threat” to the city’s journalists as Hong Kong remained 80th out of 180 regions in the 2021 world press freedom index.

• RTHK rejected a media award for a TV documentary about the police handling of the Yuen Long mob attack in 2019.
• The Hong Kong government criticised a Reporters Without Borders report which warned that the national security law poses a “grave threat” to journalists in the city.
• Hong Kong documentary producer Bao Choy was found guilty and fined HK$6,000 for knowingly making false statements to obtain vehicle ownership records for the RTHK programme on the Yuen Long mob attacks of 2019.
• Police confirmed that a journalist from Ta Kung Pao was arrested in February for making false statements to obtain public vehicle records.
• The Foreign Correspondents’ Club urged Hong Kong’s police chief to clarify his recent comments about “foreign forces” attempting to stir hatred and conflict in the city using disinformation.
• Beijing accused the FCC of being an external force interfering with China’s internal affairs and undermining the city’s rule of law.
• A fifth senior staffer resigned from RTHK.
• RTHK signed up Chief Executive Carrie Lam to host her own daily show on Beijing’s electoral overhaul for the city.
• RTHK axed another episode of a TV documentary series about online media financed by public donations after a month-long vetting process.

March 2021

• A top Beijing official said the principle of “patriots governing Hong Kong” extends to the judiciary, the education sector and the media, in addition to public officials.
• A leading civil servant with no broadcasting experience took over as head of RTHK, where three senior employees quit in the space of two weeks.
• Hong Kong’s national security police arrested a former top executive of Next Digital, the publisher of Apple Daily, over alleged fraud.
• RTHK made a last-minute decision to cancel a programme featuring a panel discussion of Beijing’s plans for a drastic election overhaul.

• The cinema screening of a documentary about a violent campus clash between student protesters and police in 2019 was cancelled at short notice after a pro-Beijing newspaper claimed the film may violate the national security law.
• Hong Kong’s Ombudsman said that it would investigate the Immigration Department for refusing a work visa to Hong Kong Free Press for its incoming editor in 2020.
• Bao Choy went on trial for allegedly violating the Road Traffic Ordinance in seeking to obtain vehicle licence plate information for a documentary.
• RTHK axed another episode of a current affairs programme at short notice, the ninth such cancellation since the new Director of Broadcasting Patrick Li took office.
• The Hong Kong government announced plans to restrict public and media access to currently available information on company directors listed in the Companies’ Registry.
• RTHK sought to withdraw its entries from journalism awards.

February 2021

• RTHK suspended BBC World News after a ban in China over its Xinjiang reporting. 
• Security officers at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts barred at least two reporters from attending a trial hearing to protect the identity of a police officer who had provided a witness statement anonymously.
• Hong Kong’s High Court refused to grant bail to media mogul Jimmy Lai again over national security law charges.
• Director of Broadcasting Leung Ka-wing resigned from his post at RTHK six months before the end of his term.
• A Hong Kong government report found “deficiencies” in the editorial management of RTHK.
• Funding for RTHK was cut by 4.6 per cent in the 2021-22 budget.
• Baptist University cancelled the World Press Photo exhibition, which included images of the Hong Kong protests, two days before its expected launch.

January 2021

• The Hong Kong government announced a decision to move Covid-19 press briefings online. It backtracked following criticism from a Hong Kong journalism watchdog.
• Police demanded that Apple Daily hand over the information on journalists who searched for public vehicle licence plate records.
• Police visited the newsrooms of Apple Daily, InMedia and StandNews with search warrants demanding documents relating to the primary election for LegCo in July 2020.
• The head of RTHK, Leung Ka-wing, advised staff not to interview the 55 democrats arrested under the national security law over their alleged involvement in the primary.
• Three people convicted of rioting and assaulting a mainland journalist at the airport during anti-government protests in 2019 were jailed for up to 5 1/2 years.
• Bao Choy pleaded not guilty to making false statements after she obtained vehicle registration information for a film about the 2019 Yuen Long mob attacks.
• The head of Hong Kong’s largest police union slammed public broadcaster RTHK for allegedly biased reporting of a weekend lockdown to combat Covid-19.

• The staff union at RTHK staged a silent protest to support fellow journalist Nabela Qoser, after she was told to accept a new short-term contract or face dismissal.
• The Communications Authority ruled that three episodes of RTHK’s satirical programme Headliner insulted and denigrated the police force, and “strongly advised” the station to follow broadcasting regulations more closely.
• Three parliamentarians from the Norwegian Liberal Party nominated Hong Kong Free Press for a Nobel Peace Prize.

December 2020

• iCable News’ China desk resigned en masse after the broadcaster fired 40 people in the newsroom, citing the impact of Covid-19.
• Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui said the government would examine “loopholes” in the laws against fake news and misinformation.
• Bookstore Bookazine declined to distribute a book by Hong Kong Free Press political columnist Kent Ewing, citing fears over the national security law.
• The Court of First Instance rejected the Hong Kong Journalists Association’s legal challenge against police “ill-treatment” of the media at protests.
• Prosecutors filed an appeal against the granting of bail to Jimmy Lai after Chinese state media criticised the decision.
• Jimmy Lai resigned from Apple Daily parent company Next Media to “spend more time dealing with his personal affairs.”

November 2020

• Freelance producer Bao Choy was arrested for searching car licence plate records while researching a TV documentary about the 2019 Yuen Long mob attacks.
• A student journalist was charged with obstructing police and resisting arrest in a protest in May.
• Police arrested a journalist for obstruction after she refused to stop filming the arrest of two women in a mass protest in Mong Kok in May.
• Hong Kong Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung banned a planned journalists’ protest against the arrest of Choy, citing Covid-19 restrictions, despite earlier approval.

October 2020

• National security police raided the private office of Jimmy Lai.
• A district councillor was given a suspended prison sentence for publicly identifying the policeman who allegedly shot an Indonesian journalist in the eye.

September 2020

• The University of Hong Kong was asked a long list of “unusual” questions by the Immigration Department when applying for a work visa for a Pulitzer-winning journalist.
• The government reportedly told an independent film distributor to include an official warning in two documentaries about the anti-extradition bill protests.
• Media groups criticised the police decision to stop recognising accreditations issued by journalist associations.
• RTHK journalist Nabela Qoser had her probation extended and was investigated again after she grilled Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

August 2020

• Police ordered reporters from five Hong Kong digital media platforms to leave a press conference.
• Apple Daily newspaper claimed that the personal data of staffers had been published on a doxxing website.
• The Foreign Correspondents’ Club said reporters were facing “highly unusual” problems obtaining visas, including months-long delays.
• Beijing’s foreign affairs office told the FCC in response to “distinguish right from wrong.”
• Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai was arrested under the national security law.
• More than 100 police raided the newsroom at Lai’s Apple Daily newspaper in Tseung Kwan O.
• Journalist Wilson Li was arrested in connection with a pro-democracy NGO under the national security law.
• Police said they would select which media outlets should have close access to their operations after excluding several local and international news organisations from the Apple Daily raid.
• Dozens of people gathered at shopping malls to protest for press freedom after the arrest of Lai and the newsroom raid.

• Public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong removed a website interview with activist-in-exile Nathan Law, citing the national security law.
• The government appointed new members to RTHK’s advisory board.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association filed a legal challenge against the Communications Authority’s warning concerning RTHK’s Headliner show.
• Over 300 iCable News staff signed a petition against the dismissal of three senior engineers.
• A survey showed some journalists who covered the 2019 protests reported a range of health issues due to crowd control weapons.
• Hong Kong Free Press was denied a work visa for a journalist following an almost six-month wait without any explanation.

July 2020

• The Foreign Correspondents’ Club issued an open letter to Chief Executive Carrie Lam demanding that the government give assurances of press freedom under the national security law.
• Lam said she would guarantee press freedom if the media guaranteed that it would not violate the security law.
• The Hong Kong Journalists Association warned of the “chilling effect” of the law.
• The New York Times moved a third of its Hong Kong staff to Seoul, citing the national security law and the difficulty in securing work visas.
• Police fined journalists at a protest in Yuen Long for allegedly breaching anti-coronavirus social distancing rules.

Three-time Chinese Olympic champion swimmer Sun Yang filed a police report after being subjected to “large-scale” cyberbullying, his team said Friday.

Sun, 34, returned to competition in 2024 after a four-year ban for smashing vials of blood during a 2018 doping test, the circumstances of which he still disputes.

His team said Friday that false information including “maliciously fabricated rumours” had circulated online recently, calling it “organised and planned cyberbullying and defamation”.

They did not specify what false information had been spread about Sun.

The swimmer reported the case to police in the eastern city of Hangzhou, his team said on social media, posting a photo of a notice he had received after filing the complaint.

“We solemnly warn all rumour-mongers and malicious disseminators: immediately delete all infringing content and cease forwarding,” his team said.

“Our legal team has secured evidence and will pursue civil, administrative, and even criminal liability according to the law.”

Chinese authorities have been grappling with what state media has called “toxic fandom” surrounding its sports stars.

It includes fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives and attacking opponents online.

The nearly two-metre tall (six feet seven inches) Sun was China’s first male Olympic swimming champion, winning the 400m and 1500m freestyle at the 2012 London Games.

But he has long been a controversial figure in the pool.

Some rivals accused him of cheating at the 2016 Rio Olympics and two competitors refused to stand with him on medal podiums at the 2019 World Championships.

Sun was also given a three-month ban in 2014 after testing positive for a banned substance.

By Sophia Xu and Purple Romero

Christine Li is a model and influencer, but not an actor, so when she saw herself playing a cruel character in a Chinese microdrama she felt bewildered, then angry and afraid.

The 26-year-old is one of two people who told AFP their likenesses were cast without consent in the AI-generated show “The Peach Blossom Hairpin”, which ran on Hongguo, a major microdrama app owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance.

Li plans to sue the drama makers and the platform, highlighting new legal and regulatory grey areas created by artificial intelligence.

“I was genuinely shocked. It was clearly me,” said Li, who lives in Hangzhou in eastern China.

“It was so obvious that they used a specific set of photos I took two years ago” and had posted on social media, she said.

Microdramas are ultra-short, online soap operas hugely popular in China and elsewhere.

When Li’s fans alerted her to the series, she was horrified to find her digital twin shown slapping women and mistreating animals.

“I also felt a deep fear. I kept wondering what kind of person would do something like this,” Li said.

Hongguo hosts thousands of free, bite-sized shows — both live-action and AI-generated — whose episodes are two or three minutes long.

As of October, the platform had around 245 million monthly active users, according to data cited by Wenwen Han, president of the Short Drama Alliance.

A Hongguo statement in early April said it had taken the series down because the producers had violated platform rules and contractual obligations.

‘Sleazy’ antagonist

AI’s ability to mimic real people has sparked global concern for actors’ jobs, and over such deepfakes being used for scams and propaganda.

Li and a man who says he was portrayed as her AI husband in the series, which became a hit last month on Hongguo, spoke out online about their separate unwelcome discoveries.

But even as their stories sparked a public outcry about AI ethics, AFP saw that “The Peach Blossom Hairpin” kept running for days before its removal, with the disputed characters quietly replaced.

The man, a stylist specialised in traditional Chinese clothing and make-up, had posted photos of himself in costume on the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu app.

Like Li, he was upset by the “ugly” portrayal of his likeness as a “sleazy” antagonist in the show.

“Will it have an impact on me, on my job, on my future work opportunities?” said the man, who asked to use the pseudonym Baicai.

To keep audiences hooked, microdramas are often full of shocking, larger-than-life moments.

Li and Baicai both showed AFP their original photos and the characters in “The Peach Blossom Hairpin”, which bore a strong resemblance.

Legal risk

For low-budget AI microdramas, Chinese regulations say platforms must be the primary checkpoint for potentially dodgy content.

If they do not carry out mandatory content reviews, the videos will be forcibly taken down, according to the National Radio and Television Administration.

If the platforms were aware of any infringement but failed to act on it, parties affected can alert China’s cyberspace authorities which can impose administrative penalties, according to Zhao Zhanling, a partner at Beijing Javy Law Firm.

Hongguo said in a second statement this month it would continue to strengthen how it reviews content and how it authorises creators, among other steps.

It said it had dealt with 670 AI microdramas that violated regulations, with most taken down, and warned it would crack down on repeated breaches.

When approached for comment, parent company Bytedance referred AFP to the two Hongguo statements.

Li and Baicai say they need more information from Hongguo to confirm the identity of the drama’s creator — with two companies as potential candidates.

One is linked to a verified account on the Chinese version of TikTok that also published the series. Another is listed as the drama’s producer on an official Chinese filing system.

AFP contacted both firms but received no response.

Using AI to slash costs may be tempting in the fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar microdrama market.

But featuring someone in a demeaning way without permission “may constitute an infringement of both portrait rights and reputation rights”, said Li’s lawyer Yijie Zhao, from Henan Huailv Law Firm.

‘Associated with controversy’

National regulations require microdrama makers to register to obtain a licence — a step made mandatory for AI-generated animations from this month.

But producers could remain in the shadows by registering temporary outfits, Zhao said, while some allegedly use overseas servers to hide.

In 2024, a Beijing court ordered a company to apologise and pay compensation to a celebrity after its AI software enabled users to produce a virtual persona using his photos and name that could exchange intimate messages.

See also: US tech giant Meta sues Brazil, China advertisers over celebrity deepfake scams

But lawyers told AFP that compensation for plaintiffs like Li likely won’t amount to much due to the limited commercial value of an ordinary likeness.

Li worries that the saga may cost her opportunities in the modelling industry, as she is now “associated with controversy”.

Baicai has not launched legal action, but hopes to see more measures from regulators and platforms to protect people like him.

“There are probably plenty of cases with unknown victims,” he said.

China’s foreign minister on Thursday urged the United States to maintain “stability” between the two powers and warned that Taiwan posed the biggest risk, weeks before President Donald Trump visits Beijing.

In a call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Beijing and Washington should “safeguard the hard-won stability” in China-US relations, China’s foreign ministry said.

The talks also discussed the Middle East, where China has been a key partner of Tehran but has largely kept its distance after Trump joined Israel in attacking Iran, sending global oil prices spiralling.

A State Department official confirmed the phone call and said it was to arrange Trump’s trip but did not give further details.

Trump is scheduled to visit China on May 14-15 to see President Xi Jinping — the Republican billionaire’s first trip to the rival power since returning to the White House in January 2025.

During Trump’s first year back in office, Washington and Beijing clashed over trade and tariffs until a truce was declared in October, when Trump and Xi met in South Korea.

“Both sides should safeguard the hard-won stability, prepare well for key high-level interactions, expand areas of cooperation” and manage their differences, Wang told Rubio, according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry.

While ties have “generally remained stable” under Trump and Xi, Wang “emphasised that the Taiwan issue concerns China’s core interests and is the biggest risk point in China-US relations”, it said.

Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification and is sharply critical of US military assistance to the self-ruled island and its support of Taipei on the international stage.

“The United States must honor its commitments and make the right choices, opening new perspectives for bilateral cooperation and do its part to promote world peace,” Wang said.

The statement from the Chinese ministry said Wang and Rubio had “exchanged views” on the situation in the Middle East, without offering further details.

Taiwan’s economy expanded at its fastest pace in nearly 39 years thanks to robust demand for artificial intelligence technology, data showed Thursday, despite concerns over the Middle East crisis.

The island is a global powerhouse in the manufacturing of semiconductor chips, which power AI, and its economy has been growing at a fast clip in recent years.

But the Iran war has raised concerns about the potential impact on the economy, particularly the critical chips sector, owing to Taiwan’s almost total reliance on energy imports to keep the lights on and production lines running.

Gross domestic product expanded 13.7 percent on-year in the first quarter of 2026, the fastest pace since the second quarter of 1987, according to the statistics agency.

It was also better than the 11.3 percent forecast in a survey by Bloomberg News, and a pick-up from the 12.7 percent recorded in the previous three months.

See also: Taiwan’s TSMC logs net profit jump on AI boom

“The rapid expansion of AI applications has sharply boosted demand for computing power, which in turn has driven strong export momentum for products in AI infrastructure–related supply chains,” said Chiang Hsin-yi, an official at the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.

She added that the impact from the Middle East war “doesn’t seem that evident at this point”, although some data for March “is not that complete yet”.

Taipei has sought to limit the economic impact of the Iran war by absorbing most of the increase in fuel prices, while also ensuring the island has a secure supply of LNG and oil, much of which comes from the Middle East.

Wendell Huang, chief financial officer of chip titan TSMC, said this month that the company did not expect the war to impact its supply of key chipmaking materials such as helium and hydrogen in the near term.

TSMC is the biggest contract maker of microchips that are used in everything from Apple iPhones to Nvidia’s processors.

Nevertheless, Taiwan’s “consumption likely slowed” and “investment probably fell” in the first quarter as sentiment was hurt by the conflict, Bloomberg reported before the data was released.

The export-driven economy grew 8.6 percent in 2025, its fastest pace in 15 years, but is expected to expand 3.5 percent this year.

Hong Kong photographer Gareth Brown has spent the past 19 years working on a personal project called “Bodies in Motion, Bodies at Rest” – using dance to showcase the city’s unique spots.

For what he called a “very personal passion project,” he photographed ballerinas, contemporary and traditional dancers, as well as artistic swimmers and aerialists, against the backdrop of heritage buildings, natural landscapes, and modern infrastructure.

“Over the years, I’ve kept the works mostly to myself, dance and heritage friends,” said Brown, who is originally from the UK.

Having amassed a large collection, “I’m attempting to bring it to the attention of a wider audience.”

The photographer said he usually found locations of interest – “culturally, historically, or they just look good” – and then chose dancers who best fitted the spot.

For example, at a river pool in Sheung Luk Stream, Sai Kung, he worked with members of the Hong Kong artistic swim team. At an abandoned Gurkha Hindu temple in Burma Lines, he collaborated with traditional dancers from the Nepalese community. An aerialist posed at a wall tree of the former Tung Chi College on Ship Street, which has since been demolished.

“If nothing else, the project is an interesting historical record of the [Hong Kong] dance industry, as well as locations that no longer exist or probably won’t exist for much longer,” Brown said.

The project gave him the chance to work with some of the city’s prominent dancers, such as Hong Kong Ballet principal dancer Yang Ruiqi, former Hong Kong Dance Company principal dancer Laura Pan, and dancer-choreographer Abby Chan.

“I’ve been very lucky,” the photographer said of the collaborations.

At the heels of Brown’s solo exhibition at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club last year and another show at the Hong Kong Dance Awards ceremony last week, “Bodies in Motion, Bodies at Rest” is currently on display at The Corner Shop, a small gallery in Tsim Sha Tsui managed by the hotel Mondrian Hong Kong.

The exhibition will run until May 17.

• Exhibition: “Bodies in Motion, Bodies at Rest” – Photography by Gareth Brown.
• Dates: April 20 – May 17, 2026.
• Opening Hours: 11am to 11pm.
• Venue: The Corner Shop by Mondrian, 11A-11D Hart Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui.

In the second half of April, the public inquiry into the deadly Tai Po blaze heard from multiple government departments about authorities’ oversight during a major renovation at Wang Fuk Court before the tragedy unfolded.

In the first 10 days of the hearings, residents gave damning testimony of how their complaints about potential fire hazards during the renovation had fallen on deaf ears. Departments passed around their complaints, and when officers did inspect the housing estate in Tai Po, they said they failed to find evidence of irregularities.

During the 11 days of hearings from April 13 to Friday, a number of high-ranking officials and frontline officers acknowledged that the ways departments handled residents’ complaints were “not good enough” and that things could have been “done better.”

Victor Dawes, the lead lawyer for the independent committee investigating the inferno, summed it up well last week.

“During this inquiry, it appears that all government departments agree that things were not ideal. I have lost count of how many times we have heard, ‘Not good enough,” he said in Cantonese.

Judge David Lok, the committee chair, also noted that the blaze had exposed a “grey area” in which government departments lacked clear communication and a demarcation of responsibility for specific fire hazards.

So far, witnesses from the Fire Services Department, the Labour Department, the Buildings Department, the Home Affairs Department, and the Urban Renewal Authority have testified before the committee. Here is the summary.

Fire department as ‘ultimate gatekeeper’

The Fire Services Department (FSD) has the highest number of witnesses among government departments so far, with a total of 14 officers – ranging from frontline commanders to the director of fire services, Andy Yeung.

In his testimony on April 24, Yeung – the first departmental chief to testify – touched on several issues relating to the FSD’s oversight of fire hazards arising from building renovation projects.

Yeung also corrected the accounts given by some of his senior subordinates who had earlier given testimony.

For example, Michael Yung, assistant director of fire safety at the FSD, told the committee on April 22 that fire hazards like non-fire-retardant scaffold netting, flammable foam boards and workers smoking on construction sites fell outside the department’s purview.

The FSD is only responsible for “active” fire safety measures, such as alarm systems, and lacks the expertise on construction work, Yung said, while risks concerning construction materials fall under the purview of the Buildings Department.

Yeung, the fire services chief, said otherwise. He agreed with Dawes when the lawyer suggested that the FSD should be the “ultimate gatekeeper” to eradicate fire risks.

Yeung said the FSD and the Buildings Department should complement each other when it comes to mitigating fire risks, citing the experience following the fatal mini-storage unit fire in 2016, which killed two firefighters.

At that time, there was no law regulating the size of and the distance between storage units, Yeung recalled.

After the 2016 blaze, the FSD and the Buildings Department worked together to develop the regulations, ensuring they aligned with fire safety, as well as other structural elements, such as lighting and ventilation.

Yeung said that, following the Tai Po fire, the two departments had conducted a review of several issues, such as wooden boards in emergency staircases – which served as temporary openings for workers to access bamboo scaffolding – and foam boards used to protect windows from falling debris.

He also said both departments could make prosecutions and that inter-departmental communication would be improved regarding enforcement.

Labour Department admits shortcomings

On April 21, three occupational safety officers from the Labour Department, including the chief officer of operations, Murphy Yuen, testified before the committee.

Lam Sau-ching, an occupational safety officer who had handled Wang Fuk Court residents’ complaints, said the department conducted a total of 17 inspections, none of which found evidence of workers smoking.

“When officers say the complaint could not be justified, they meant that during the inspection, they could not see evidence for the complaint,” Lam said in Cantonese.

Lee Shu-wun, a lawyer for the independent committee, said workers may have smoked even though the department did not find any evidence, to which Lam agreed.

Lam admitted that an e-mail response she wrote to a resident to address a complaint regarding the fire-retardant quality of scaffold netting “could be improved.” In the e-mail, Lam mistakenly said the Labour Department had no regulations on the fire-resistance quality of the nets.

She also admitted that the department did not check the issue dates on fire-retardancy certificates submitted by Prestige Construction & Engineering, the main contractor for Wang Fuk Court’s renovation.

Yuen, the chief officer of operations, said the Labour Department could have referred to a list of approved laboratories provided by the Housing Department to check the authenticity of certificates, but his department still relied on the contractor’s integrity.

“If some contractors are bent on tricking us, there is nothing we can do other than refer the case to law enforcement agencies,” he said in Cantonese.

Li Man-pong, a senior occupational safety officer, said the installation of wooden boards in emergency staircases did not breach labour safety regulations as it was to facilitate workers accessing bamboo scaffolding safely.

Judge Lok said Li’s account appeared to suggest a conflict of interest between workers and residents.

The committee had previously heard that the temporary openings allowed smoke to enter the emergency staircases, accelerating the spread inside the buildings and trapping residents.

Buildings Department contradicts ICU

On Monday, two Buildings Department members testified before the committee.

Karen Cheung, assistant director of mandatory building inspection, said both access openings for workers and foam boards used to seal windows violate the city’s building construction regulations.

Not only did Cheung’s testimony differ from that of the Labour Department officers, her account also appeared to contradict a written submission by Andy Ku, a senior surveyor of the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU).

The ICU oversees construction works at government-subsidised housing estates like Wang Fuk Court.

According to Ku’s submission, Hong Kong’s laws do not regulate the use of foam boards because they are “temporary materials.” It is unclear if Ku will testify before the committee in person.

However, Cheung said using foam boards to cover windows extensively violated regulations as the laws stipulate that every unit of a residential building should have natural light and ventilation.

When asked by Dawes about her discrepancy with Ku regarding the regulations, Cheung said: “I think Mr Ku should be the one explaining this point.”

Cheung also said the Buildings Department would never inform contractors ahead of an inspection following a complaint. Officers would only seek the contractor’s assistance when they need to collect samples of construction materials for testing, she said.

The committee previously heard that the ICU had notified the consultant firm of Wang Fuk Court’s renovation project, Will Power Architects, about details of scaffold netting checks in advance.

Jenkin Suen, representing the government in the hearings, defended the ICU’s practice last month. He said at the time that inspections carried out by Buildings Department officers would also inform the inspected parties in advance.

Cheung declined to comment on the ICU’s practice. However, when pressed by Dawes, Cheung said: “This is not how we do things generally.”

In his written statement, Ku said that he consulted with Tse Kam-ming, a former senior building surveyor at the Buildings Department who was seconded to the ICU between 2023 and 2025, regarding foam boards used at Wang Fuk Court.

However, Tse told the committee that he had no recollection of giving any advice to Ku regarding the matter.

Tse called it “unacceptable” to dismiss foam board hazards, citing the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in the United Kingdom as a warning of the dangers posed by combustible cladding and foam.

Home Affairs Department on district councillors

Also testifying on Monday was Chan Hau-man, former Tai Po district officer at the Home Affairs Department, who spoke about district councillors.

Multiple residents had testified that Tai Po South District Councillor Peggy Wong, a member of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), had amassed proxy votes from residents and interfered with meetings about renovation matters.

Wong denied the allegations in a written submission to the committee, saying she had only voted on behalf of residents twice during a residents’ meeting that sought to oust a controversial owners’ committee. On both occasions, Wong voted against the motion.

Chan said her department “respects” district councillors when it comes to estate affairs, as long as they do not violate any law.

A district councillor has their own “community network,” and authorities respect that they may have an opinion and provide advice to residents regarding renovation, Chan added.

While current regulations do not specify an upper limit on the number of proxy votes a person can acquire, the department is reviewing whether a cap is needed, she said.

Urban Renewal Authority on bid-rigging risks

On Thursday, the committee heard testimony from Matthew Chan, a case manager for the Urban Renewal Authority (URA), which oversaw tender applications for the renovation work at Wang Fuk Court, a government-subsidised housing estate.

He said that the semi-government department had not considered the risks of bid-rigging in the tendering process for the large-scale renovation at the estate.

After securing the contract at a low price, Will Power Architects was able to “rig” the tendering process in favour of Prestige Construction & Engineering, an affiliated contractor, and carried out “rubber-stamp” inspections.

When Dawes presented a 2016 Competition Commission report on the prevalence of bid-rigging in Hong Kong’s building maintenance industry, Chan said that the URA did not take such risks into account despite being aware of rampant collusive tendering.

The case manager also said that the URA “would not comment on [Will Powers’] professionalism,” as the authority trusted the consultant’s experience and would want to avoid appearing biased or intervening in the owners’ board’s affairs.

The URA receives more than 10,000 tenders every year and has no ability to scrutinise every application in detail, Chan said.

China’s factory activity grew for a second straight month in April, official data showed Thursday, showing resilience despite surging energy prices and shipping disruption caused by the war in the Middle East.

The manufacturing purchasing manager’s index –- a key measure of industrial activity — was 50.3 in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), above the 50-point mark that divides expansion and contraction.

That figure fell from 50.4 in March, but was ahead of a forecast of 50.1 in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

The world’s second-largest economy has been struggling with a slowdown in domestic demand and investment in recent years that has weighed on its vast manufacturing sector.

March’s figure was the highest in a year, with manufacturing activity contracting in 10 out of 11 months before that.

April’s statistics showed economic output had “maintained expansion” while manufacturing “continued to show a positive trend”, according to NBS statistician Huo Lihui.

There was strong demand for electrical and IT equipment, but weaker market activity for petroleum and coal processing, Huo said in a statement.

But manufacturers faced higher costs as the prices of raw materials rose significantly, particularly in the energy and chemical sectors, Huo said.

The data suggests Chinese producers remain resilient despite global economic disruption caused by the US-Israeli war with Iran that has seen energy prices surge and Tehran restrict access to the vital Strait of Hormuz.

“The PMI index shows the manufacturing sector has not been adversely affected by the conflict in the Middle East,” according to Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

“The monetary policy stance seems to have a marginally loosening bias, which helps to mitigate the higher energy prices,” he said in a note.

Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics added that exports and strong external demand were the main drivers.

“Soaring demand for memory chips and green tech products likely played a key role,” he said.

Despite the positive factory data, China’s non-manufacturing PMI — a gauge of activity across services and construction — slumped to 49.4 in April, down from 50.1 in March.

Business activity in the wholesale and retail sectors contracted, suggesting consumer demand remains weak.