Hong Kong Free Press

Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) is a free, non-profit news website based in Hong Kong. It was co-founded in 2015 by Tom Grundy, who believed that the territory's press freedom was in decline, to provide an independent alternative to the dominant English-language newspaper of record in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post.

History
The Hong Kong Free Press was co-founded by Tom Grundy in 2015. Grundy was previously 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 in Hong Kong. He was also known for attempting a citizen's arrest on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He established HKFP in response to concerns about eroding press freedom and media self-censorship in Hong Kong, with the aim of covering breaking news and topics such as the pro-democracy movement.

HKFP 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 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 raised HK$150,000 (US$19,342) within two days. The four weeks of fundraising in June 2015 generated around HK$600,000.

Beginning in late 2015, Chinese authorities blocked access to the site in mainland China.

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, 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 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.