Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) is a free, non-profit news website based in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. It was co-founded in 2015 by Tom Grundy, who believed that the territory's press freedom was in decline, to provide an alternative to the dominant English-language news source, the '' South China Morning Post'', and to cover the pro-democracy movement.

History

Before founding Hong Kong Free Press in 2015, Grundy was a social activist and a blogger who had lived in Hong Kong since around 2005. He wrote the blog Hong Wrong and ran the HK Helper's Campaign, a group advocating for rights of

foreign domestic helpers Migrant domestic workers (also known as foreign home care workers, foreign domestic workers, foreign domestic helpers, transnational domestic workers, foreign domestic employees, overseas domestic workers and domestic migrant workers) are, acco ...

in Hong Kong. He established HKFP in response to concerns about eroding press freedom and media self-censorship in Hong Kong. HKFP also aimed to provide quick news reports with context, which Grundy said Hong Kong's largest English-language newspaper, the '' South China Morning Post'', does not do. The owners of the ''SCMP'' have business interests in mainland China which has led to claims of biased coverage.

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

placed Hong Kong at thirty-four in their World Press Freedom Index in 2010, at seventieth in 2015. By 2022, it had plunged well down the bottom quarter of the list in 148th of 180 countries surveyed. Crowdfunding for HKFP took place on Fringebacker and aimed to raise HK$150,000 (US$19,342) in a month to support two journalists. The amount was raised in two days and the goal was raised to HK$500,000. The fundraising campaign concluded in June 2015 with more than $600,000 raised. HKFP recruited more journalists and contributors and established headquarters in the offices of

D100 Radio D100 is an Internet radio station established by Albert Cheng. The radio station was established due to the closure of Digital Broadcasting Corporation Digital Broadcasting Corporation Hong Kong Limited (DBC) (), formerly known as Wave M ...

in Cyberport. The full website was launched on 29 June 2015. Beginning in late 2015, Chinese authorities blocked access to the site in

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater Chin ...

. In its first year of operation, HKFP published 4,400 news articles and commentaries and had over 3.5 million unique visitors. HKFP relocated from Cyberport to a co-working space in Kennedy Town in late 2017. In a 2019 public opinion survey conducted by the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university a ...

, HKFP was ranked as the third most credible online news outlet in Hong Kong with a credibility rating of 5.56 out of 10. In early 2020, HKFP suspended its coverage for a website relaunch. In the relaunch, HKFP introduced its code of ethics and fact-checking policy and recruited two reporters. The national security law, which came into force in the summer of 2020, means the ''HKFP'' may be under threat from the authorities in due course. In ''The Guardian'', Grundy wrote that he and his colleagues have made contingency plans for the newspaper to continue if they are legally threatened by the authorities or forced to leave the territory. Writers for HKFP include Stephen Vines, who left the city for the United Kingdom in August 2021 due to what he described as "white terror" under the national security law. Vines would continue to write for HKFP, the newspaper announced. Veteran China scholar

Suzanne Pepper Suzanne Pepper (1939 – 29 June 2022) was a Hong Kong-based American author, political scientist, and former editor from 1995 to 1996 of the Chinese University of Hong Kong's ''China Review''. Biography Pepper left the United States for Hong ...

wrote a regular column for HKFP from 2015 until her death in 2022. HKFP also maintains Pepper's blog, ''Hong Kong Focus''.

Content

In the long term, HKFP plans to achieve financial sustainability through "continued crowdfunding efforts, advertising and sponsorship events" and by operating with minimal overhead costs. Tom Grundy, a freelance journalist, stated that the site would "start with simple local news, and investigative pieces about Hong Kong" and that "we have no political agenda. We simply aim to be credible".

Awards and recognition

Hong Kong Free Press was nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize by multiple Norwegian members of parliament.

SOPA Awards

2020

2021

References

External links

* {{Newspapers in Hong Kong 2015 establishments in Hong Kong Hong Kong news websites Publications established in 2015 Crowdfunded journalism