Hong Kong journalists rated the city's press freedom lower than ever in an annual survey released on Tuesday, citing fears of sweeping national security laws.
Published every year since 2013 by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) and the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI), the Press Freedom Index ranks the city's media environment on a zero-to-100 scale — 100 being a perfect score.
It is based on a poll of moe than 250 working journalists and around 1,000 members of the public.
The rating this year among journalists dropped to a record low of 25, down 0.7 points from last year and 17 points from the survey's launch.
More than 90% of the surveyed journalists said the city's press freedom was "significantly" impacted by a new security law enacted in March which punishes crimes like espionage and foreign interference.
Colloquially known as Article 23, it was the second such law enacted for the financial hub, following one imposed by Beijing in 2020 after Hong Kong saw massive, and at times violent, pro-democracy protests.
Ninety-four percent of journalists also cited the prosecution of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-shuttered Chinese news tabloid Apple Daily, under the first law as being "highly damaging" to press freedom.
Other concerns included the disappearance of South China Morning Post reporter Minnie Chan in Beijing.
HKJA had previously released a statement saying it was "very concerned" about Chan, an award-winning journalist, who has been unreachable since attending a security forum in Beijing last year.
For the public, the overall rating was 42.2 — largely stable after the last major drop from 45 in 2018 to 41.9 in 2019.
"This discrepancy may be explained by the relatively less heated discussion around Article 23 compared to the 2020 National Security Law," HKJA said in a statement.
However, journalists are "more cognizant of potentially running afoul of the new crimes created by Article 23 when reporting."
China's foreign ministry said Tuesday that Hong Kong's security laws "target a very small number of individuals who severely endanger national security, not law-abiding media reporters."
Since the laws' implementation, "press freedom in Hong Kong has been better protected under a safe and stable environment in accordance with the law," spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing.
The index's publication came weeks after HKJA's newly elected chairperson Selina Cheng was fired by the Wall Street Journal after she took up the new role.
The Journal's parent company Dow Jones declined to comment on Cheng's case but said at the time it "continues to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom."