Enemies Within: Entrepreneurial Agents of Media Autocratisation in Hong Kong’s Press System

The press is described as a pillar of democracy, a generalisation that glosses over the existence of anti-liberal media organisations that actively undermine press freedom and contribute to democratic backsliding. This study examines the role played by two such Hong Kong newspapers, Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po, in the city’s autocratisation process since 2020. Focusing on the period immediately preceding and three years after the imposition of Hong Kong’s game-changing National Security Law of 2020, it analyses the two outlets’ ideological policing of three other organisations in Hong Kong’s media space. Right-wing media in democracies, as well as pure state media in autocratic systems, are known to add to anti-media populism by expressing contempt for liberal media. We find that the two Hong Kong outlets go further, even invoking legal sanctions. They can be termed entrepreneurial agents of media autocratisation, a form of anti-liberal media that may not be unique to Hong Kong. This article explains how such media leverage a media environment of heightened risk and uncertainty as an opportunity to enhance their own relevance and status. In doing so, they intensify the widespread culture of self-censorship that is a typical feature of autocratising media systems.