Freedom of the press in Hong Kong is the right to gather, report on, publish and issue news, protected under the Hong Kong Basic Law.
Multiple media groups were no longer able to publish or issue news after the passing and implementation of the 2020 Hong Kong national security law.
This is a historical list of Hong Kong's rankings and scores in RSF's World Press Freedom Index and Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA)'s Press Freedom Index.
Hong Kong ranked the 70th out of all 180 surveyed areas in April 2018, a rating significantly better than that of China Mainland's (176th) and worse than TaiwanâÂÂs (42nd). The report attributed Hong Kong's rating to low and infrequent violence against journalists, rising prominence of online journalism, their recognition by the Hong Kong government, and organised resistance to Beijing's influence of said journalistic media.
Rank declined slightly to the 73rd place in 2019, attributed by the report to "leading traditional media [receiving] pressure to comply with BeijingâÂÂs dictates," citing Victor Mallet's visa controversy and the passing of 2019 Hong Kong Extradition Bill as events threatening journalistic freedom and independence.
Hong Kong suffered the worst decline amongst all assessed areas in 2022âÂÂs Press Freedom ranking, dropping to the 148th place from previous year's 80th.
One of the early record of government prosecution against the media is the 1858 suing of W. Jarrant, the owner of newspaper The Friend Of China, for alleged defamation.
The government banned news articles with anti-Qing sentiment in 1907 - Qing being the imperial and feudalist government of China at the time.
Censorship departments were set up against newspapers publishing in Chinese language during the Canton-Hong Kong strike in 1925.
The Communist Party's newspaper é¦Â港å°ÂæÂ¥æÂÂ¥ was seized twice in 1929 and 1930 during the Chinese Civil War, eventually ceasing its publication.
Anti-Japanese sentiments and its related phrases were censored after outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Chinese phrases including , 'enemies', and 'traitors' were also censored on a keyword basis.