Press freedom in Hong Kong falls to eleven-year low

Press freedom in Hong Kong continues to decline, reaching an 11-year low, with many journalists fearing further restrictions under Article 23 of the national security law, according to an annual survey by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA).

The Press Freedom Index is conducted in collaboration with the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) and is based on around 1,000 telephone interviews with randomly selected members of the public and surveys of 251 working journalists between March and May 2024, asking them for their views on the state of press freedom and the impact of specific incidents over the past year.

In the latest Press Freedom Index, journalists gave the city a 25 out of 100 rating for press freedom, down 0.7 points from the previous year and a record low since the index was introduced in 2013. The public score has continued to fluctuate around 42 since 2019, rising 0.8 to 42.2 in the latest survey.

However, more than half (53%) of respondents said press freedom had declined in the past year, while only 13% said the situation had improved, compared to 46% and 19% respectively in the previous survey. For the fifth year in a row, more than 90% of journalists surveyed said press freedom had declined.

Since the launch of the Press Freedom Index in 2013, there has been a clear downward trend in both the public's and journalists' ratings. The latter have fallen from 42 to 25 over the past decade, while the public's rating has fallen from 49.4 to 42.2. In neither case has the index ever risen above 50.

When asked about their opinion on the Article 23 national security law introduced in March, 90% of journalists surveyed said it would significantly impact press freedom in the city.

The public was less concerned about Article 23, with 39 percent saying it would affect press freedom. Compared to the 2020 index, 52 percent of the public believe that the National Security Law legislation would affect press freedom.

According to the survey, this discrepancy may be explained by the fact that the debate over Article 23 was relatively less heated compared to the 2020 National Security Law and people felt that the press had already been restricted by that earlier legislation.

Journalists are now more aware that their reporting may violate the new criminal offences under Article 23, such as breaches of state secrets.

PORI takes a number of factors into account when calculating the Press Freedom Index. The main reasons for the deterioration in journalists' ratings were the increasing reluctance of the media to criticise the Hong Kong government (-0.4 points), the failure of the law to guarantee access to information (-0.3 points) and the declining oversight function of the media (-0.2 points).

The increase in the overall public score is due to the perception that journalists are less physically threatened (+0.3 points), that the media have fewer scruples about criticizing the central government (+0.2 points) and criticizing large companies (+0.2 points), and that – contrary to journalists' own experience – access to information has improved (+0.2 points). The public also perceived a decline in news diversity, which fell by 0.2 points compared to the previous year.

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