Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s media environment has been reshaped by national security legislation since 2020. The National Security Law imposed by Beijing that year was followed in March 2024 by the locally enacted Safeguarding National Security Ordinance under Article 23 of the Basic Law. Apple Daily, Stand News and Citizen News all closed between 2021 and 2022. After his conviction in December 2025 on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one of conspiracy to publish seditious publications, Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old founder of Apple Daily, was sentenced on 9 February 2026 to 20 years in prison, which RSF describes as the heaviest sentence ever imposed on a journalist in the territory. Political commentator Wong Kwok-ngon, known as Wong On-yin, is due to stand trial on 9 October 2026 in the first prosecution under section 88 of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which criminalises prejudicing a national security investigation, including through unauthorised disclosure.

Hong Kong ranked 140th of 180 in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index, unchanged in position but with its score falling from 39.86 to 39.49. Its political, economic and legal scores all declined, while the social score was broadly flat and the security score improved. It sits between Rwanda and Syria in RSF’s very serious category, and has fallen 122 places since 2002. RSF cited random tax audits affecting individuals and independent media organisations, visa denials and entry bans, and the November 2025 detention and deportation of a French journalist, alongside the Lai sentence. The Hong Kong government and the Legislative Council publicly condemned the index, describing RSF as a tool for anti-China forces.

State Media Monitor currently maps three organisations, none in the independent family, and each illustrates a different mechanism of control. Radio Television Hong Kong is classified State-Controlled: a government department whose funding overwhelmingly comes through Head 160 of the annual estimates. Its 2026 to 2027 provision is HK$1.124 billion, 26.7 per cent below the elevated 2025 to 2026 revised estimate, partly because exceptional National Games expenditure has lapsed. Its own budget submissions commit it to co-productions fostering affection for the country and to using a television channel to promote government policies, and three of its five television channels and two of its eight radio channels relay mainland state broadcasters. The Hong Kong Ta Kung Wen Wei Media Group is classified Captured Public: it publishes Ta Kung Pao, Wen Wei Po and Lion Rock Daily, calls itself a patriotic omni-media flagship, and holds newspapers whose majority ownership was reported in corporate registry research to have been transferred into the group structure from the Liaison Office-linked Guangdong Xin Wenhua vehicle. TVB is classified Captured Private: a listed company with no state shareholding whose 25.02 per cent cornerstone voting block is ultimately controlled by Thomas Hui, a CMC executive and member of the Shanghai municipal CPPCC, while a Li Ruigang-controlled CMC vehicle holds the remaining 36.16 per cent of the Young Lion holding structure, with HKEX deeming both men interested in the same TVB share block.

The post-2021 reorganisation also created a second major state-owned media branch around Bauhinia Culture Group. Sino United Publishing became part of Bauhinia Culture in 2021, placing Orange News within that structure; Bauhinia Magazine and Knowledge are also now held within the group, which owns 21 per cent of Phoenix Media Investment. Across the three mapped organisations, State Media Monitor identified no governance arrangement that structurally insulates editorial decision-making from the relevant owner or controller. RTHK’s Charter formally states a commitment to editorial independence, and TVB is subject to Communications Authority regulation and has independent non-executive directors, but neither mechanism gives an external body authority over editorial appointments or newsroom autonomy. Article 27 of the Basic Law protects freedom of speech, the press and publication generally, rather than establishing outlet-specific protection against proprietorial direction.

Artificial intelligence adoption is running ahead of published governance. RTHK has operated an AI Laboratory since July 2024 with a virtual presenter and a website chatbot; TVB has released AI-generated drama and animation through its in-house studio; and the Ta Kung Wen Wei group signed an agreement with HKGAI in April 2026 under which the partners plan to establish content review and technical safety rules intended to ensure AI-generated output conforms to the realities of One Country, Two Systems and Hong Kong mainstream values. Hong Kong has no mandatory statutory labelling regime. An April 2025 government guideline recommends explicit identification through watermarks, labels, metadata or digital signatures, and an interdepartmental working group established in March 2026 was reported in July to be considering bespoke legislation or administrative measures.

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