Macao

Macao is a Special Administrative Region of China, governed under a Basic Law whose Article 27 protects freedom of speech, press and publication, while operating under national security legislation enacted locally in 2009 and substantially broadened by Law 8/2023, in force from 30 May 2023. RSF noted that the amendments widened definitions and reach, extending subversion and secession to non-violent conduct and broadening the rules on state secrets and external links. In July 2026 Macao’s courts committed the territory’s first state security case for trial, against former legislator Au Kam San, on charges including subversion and violation of secrets.

Sam Hou Fai became Chief Executive on 20 December 2024, succeeding Ho Iat-seng. In January 2026 he called on Chinese-language media to play a greater role in guiding public opinion and supporting implementation of central government priorities and to spread positive energy, and two days later urged Portuguese and English-language outlets to share positive stories about China and Macao internationally.

Article 15 of the Press Law places the press register with the Government Information Bureau, while the Media Registration Regulations provide for cancellation where a daily fails to publish for 180 days or another periodical for a year. The Bureau reported 110 publications with valid registrations in January 2026, following six new registrations and six cancellations during 2025.

Macao’s media market is small but numerically crowded for a territory of its size. The government records thirteen regularly published Chinese-language dailies, three Portuguese-language dailies and two English-language dailies. Broadcasting is much more concentrated, with one free-to-air television station, two radio stations, one cable television operator and one locally based satellite service. Macao Daily News, founded in 1958 with support from the Chinese Communist Party, is the dominant print title and has been reported to account for 70 to 80 per cent of newspaper circulation. State Media Monitor does not currently map it.

The independent outlet All About Macau ceased publication in late 2025 after citing growing pressure, legal risks and resource constraints, and its registration was among the six cancelled by the Bureau that year. Three former reporters face charges of disrupting the functioning of organs of the Macao SAR arising from an April 2025 incident after they were denied access to a Legislative Assembly sitting; a trial scheduled for 16 July 2026 was postponed without a new date announced.

State Media Monitor maps one organisation, Teledifusão de Macau, classified State-Controlled. TDM is 100 per cent publicly owned, with approximately 99.94 per cent of its capital held directly by the Macao Special Administrative Region and the balance by autonomous public entities. Its Council of Administration is appointed by the Chief Executive, who also dismisses members by executive order, and a government delegate sits within its governance structure. The Council is chaired by Kou Hoi In, appointed in December 2025, a former President of Macao’s Legislative Assembly and a current member of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress. TDM operates under a broadcasting concession first granted in 1990 and renewed on 18 June 2026 for a further fifteen years.

The funding position is decisive. TDM received approximately MOP 354.4 million in total government subsidy in 2025, up from MOP 335.7 million, comprising roughly MOP 339.3 million in operating support and MOP 15.1 million in investment support, while its own revenue fell 3.22 per cent on declining private sector advertising. It reported a net profit of approximately MOP 16.7 million; before subsidy the result would have been approximately MOP 337.7 million negative. Government subsidy is financially determinative under TDM’s current operating model.

Editorial direction has been contested since March 2021, when RSF and journalists reported that TDM management had issued nine editorial instructions including directions not to criticise Macao or central government authorities, prompting newsroom departures. Journalist and press organisations criticised the reported instructions as a breach of press freedom, Portugal’s foreign minister publicly noted that press freedom forms part of the Macao Basic Law, and both the Chief Executive of the day and TDM denied that restrictions had been imposed or that editorial rules had changed. Journalists have since described self-censorship and management intervention. The 2026 concession requires news to respect truth, impartiality, objectivity and honesty, while reserving continuing supervisory powers to the government and obliging TDM to carry official communiqués free and in full. The Press Law formally provides for a Press Council intended to protect independence and pluralism, but that body was never constituted, and State Media Monitor identified no functioning TDM-specific governance mechanism capable of insulating newsroom decisions from government-appointed management.

Two features are particularly notable in the Macao case. Reporters Without Borders does not rank the territory separately, so no comparative press freedom score is available. And TDM’s distribution is expanding outward: its 2025 accounts record rising costs from carriage of TDM Ou Mun in Guangdong and limited distribution across mainland China, alongside development of the Ou Mun-Macau satellite service for Portuguese-speaking markets. In August 2026 TDM broadcast a ten-part AI-produced live-action micro-drama with the Macau University of Science and Technology, marketed explicitly as AI Theatre, though no comprehensive public newsroom policy governing generative AI has been identified.

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