The Development of Investigative Reporting in Hong Kong

The development of investigative reporting is rather recent in Hong Kong. This is especially unusual phenomenon since Hong Kong has long been known for its reputation for press freedom and highly competitive nature of the newspaper market. Investigative reporting began to be recognized as a journalistic genre since 1980s due to various economic and political changes. During this process, the development of investigative reporting has been confronted by many obstacles. This study explains the emergence of its late development of investigative reporting by examining the historical formation of the journalistic field and cultural inertia with the use of the concept of field theory.

Although Hong Kong journalistic practices follows the tradition of Anglo-American journalism which emphasizes the collection and exposition of facts, journalistic culture is also greatly influenced by the journalism practices in colonial days. In early colonial days, the colonial government has 30 laws that could be used against the media, and it allows the government to search and punish the news company for publishing articles which are antigovernment. Many scholars asserted that colonial government took tolerant attitudes towards media because only a few case in history in which such law are applied, and there were many different kinds of newspaper with different ideological positions at that time, but, in fact, the colonial government kept a close eye on the media. Hong Kong media enjoyed press freedom only if they did not touch sensitive issues which were related to colonial government.

In addition, because of refugee mentality and utilitarian familism, Hong Kong people is political indifferent towards election and the politics. Although decolonization and democratization happens in 1970s and 1980, and the colonial government was no longer able to control the media by controlling the sources and using the law restriction, the culture of investigative reporting is still not developed well in Hong Kong.

The development of investigative reporting has also been confronted by many obstacles after 1980s. The media faced with the growing threat of the loss of freedom of expression and loss of press freedom since the transition period (1984-1997). Public worried that the change of media ownership and reporter’s self-censorship did upset the press freedom. On the other hand, Hong Kong media underwent commercialization, which has brought opportunities and threats to journalistic field. Fierce competition created pressure for traditional Chinese language press to implement a reform on the layout and the content. The newspaper with large and colorful pictures and more entertaining news goes mainstreams. At the same time, Hong Kong press has been accused of being more sensational and superficial.

A weak journalistic culture of investigative reporting, in addition to the fierce competition among news organization and self-censorship of the reporters, explains why the development of investigative reporting is rather fragile, and the investigative reports can only be found occasionally in Hong Kong.