An annual Reuters Institute report on the global news industry has said that Hong Kong journalists are facing “a widening range of intimidation, including tax investigations,” amid a deepening financial crisis among local media outlets. Local and international media outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building for the verdict hearing of 16 Hong Kong democrats involved in the city’s largest national security trial, on May 30, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. The 2026 Digital News Report said that journalists in the city are “treading carefully to avoid crossing vaguely defined legal red lines and, as a result, practising more self-censorship.”
It cited the jailing of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai and the summoning of foreign media chiefs to Beijing’s national security office last year.
The Hong Kong government has said the Lai ruling had nothing to do with press freedom , which it insists remains protected.
At least seven independent media outlets and 20 individuals were targeted with tax audits , it said, citing the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA). They have received tax bills totalling around HK$1.7 million, the HKJA said. Selina Cheng, chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association. File Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. HKFP was among those targeted . The Inland Revenue Department has maintained that a taxpayer’s background or industry bears no relevance to such reviews, and told HKFP it was “randomly selected” for an audit.
The report said that Ming Pao and Hong Kong Economic Times have suffered substantial financial losses, though TVB has bucked the trend, having returned to profit.
“Although Hong Kong news content cannot be distributed in mainland China, TVB’s dramas streamed on major mainland platforms such as Youku have performed strongly, suggesting that expansion into the mainland may offer a path forward for local media organisations with business lines beyond news,” the report said. TVB Building. Photo: SRR via Wikimedia Commons. Whilst legacy outlets are struggling, the institute pointed to independent online outlets with lean operational set-ups: “These include The Witness, which focuses on court reporting; The Collective, which specialises in in-depth reporting; and Initium Media and The [Pulse], which have relocated overseas in response to the NSL.”
Pro-government outlets also strengthened their presence: “Outlets such as Speak Out HK, Dot Dot News, and Orange News have gained considerable online influence, aided by their comparatively stronger resources.”
TVB, HK01, Yahoo have most reach
The report also involved a survey of 2,004 Hong Kong residents. It found that TVB News had the widest weekly reach among offline outlets, with 55 per cent of respondents tuning in. NowTV/ViuTV News came in second with a weekly reach of 24 per cent, and RTHK was third with 19 per cent. State-backed Lion Rock Daily was last with a reach of 7 per cent.
TVB was also the most popular online platform, with TVB Online News reaching 34 per cent of respondents each week. HK01 came next with 33 per cent of readers checking in weekly, followed by Yahoo News. Alibaba’s South China Morning Post was last among the surveyed online platforms with a weekly reach of 8 per cent. Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026. The study found that news consumption habits were in line with the five previous Digital News Reports: “Most respondents consume news online (87%), while 65% rely on television and 24% on print. The use of social media for news is increasing steadily.”
Overall trust in news among respondents remained at 52 per cent, the same as last year. The proportion of those paying for news, however, fell by 4 percentage points to 18 per cent. [Table]
Brand | Trust | Neither | Don’t Trust
am730 | 67% | 24% | 9%
Bastillepost | 57% | 27% | 16%
Commercial radio | 70% | 22% | 8%
Dot Dot News | 54% | 31% | 15%
HK01 | 68% | 21% | 11%
i-CABLE News | 72% | 22% | 6%
In-media | 58% | 31% | 11%
Ming Pao | 69% | 23% | 8%
NOW TV News | 73% | 22% | 5%
Oriental Daily News | 66% | 23% | 11%
RTHK | 71% | 19% | 10%
Sing Tao Daily | 68% | 23% | 9%
The Collective | 56% | 32% | 12%
TVB News | 69% | 17% | 14%
Yahoo! News | 70% | 23% | 7%
[/Table] Only the brands mentioned were included in the survey. Source: Reuters Institute. The report said that most local outlets were trusted by over half of respondents: “Well-known electronic media enjoy relatively higher trust, with NowTV News, i-Cable News, and RTHK among the most trusted. Less widely known digital-only outlets tend to score lower, though Yahoo! News, likely benefiting from the public recognition of its platform, scores highly in trust terms.”
The report was authored by Alex Zhi-Xiong Koo, Francis Lee, and Hsuan-Ting Chen. The Reuters Institute is part of Oxford University’s Department of Politics and International Relations.