Hong Kong's Beleaguered Journalists Say Their Taxes Are Now Under Scrutiny

New York Times

21-05-2025

Journalists in Hong Kong have increasingly complained about having to self-censor and the fear of arrest since a national security crackdown began five years ago.
Now, they say, they have another worry to add to the list: tax inspections.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association said on Wednesday that the union itself and six independent news outlets — as well as their founders — are among those who have been subject to tax investigations, saying it added to the pressures being placed on journalists as press freedom dwindles in the Chinese territory.
The investigations also extended to the personal taxes of the spouses or parents of some the journalists who are being investigated, the group said. Most of those being investigated by the department have been issued additional tax demands, and a few said they were asked to provide up to seven years of financial information.
Selina Cheng, the chair of the association, said that there was not sufficient evidence to prompt most of the tax investigations, and that, in some cases, the authorities had overestimated income without taking into account business expenses.
'Journalists in Hong Kong do not have a very high income. Other than having to pay these claims of taxes, they also need to spend money, time and energy to prove in reverse that they were innocent,' Ms. Cheng said.
The number of tax investigations in Hong Kong is relatively low: the Inland Revenue Department said it completed about 1,800 field audit and investigations between 2023 and 2024. The department said in a statement that the investigations followed standard procedures. 'The industry or background of a taxpayer has no bearing on such reviews,' it said.
Some independent media outlets in Hong Kong, especially independent ones, have faced great scrutiny since a national security law was imposed by Beijing in 2020 and criminalized some forms of dissent. The authorities have sent police officers to raid newsrooms, arrested media executives and convicted news editors.
The authorities have also used subtler ways to try and silence opposing voices of journalists, activists and even book store owners, political analysts say. Groups that are critical of the government have faced problems finding private venues for events, inspections of their premises and even inquiries into their pet licenses.
Thomas Kellogg, the executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said that administrative harassment can be an effective way to keep in line the remaining outlets that have managed not to cross red lines that could put them at risk for prosecution under national security or sedition laws. Such reviews 'serve as a reminder to media outlets that they have to watch what they say, and that the government has ways to hit back at them over reporting it doesn't like,' he said.
Damon Wong, the director and editor in chief of InMedia, said that a tax investigation into the independent news outlet had caused it to use up significant time and resources. In 2024, he appeared in court and paid a fine of about $1,250 for failing to keep a physical copy of the company registry in its office.
Tom Grundy, the founder of the Hong Kong Free Press, an English-language online outlet, also said that it has had to redirect time, resources and money away from covering the news as it faced scrutiny from the tax and other departments.
Last year, the authorities investigated what the outlet described as 'false complaints,' including claims that a hot sauce it sold as a fund-raiser had come from an unlicensed food factory and that Mr. Grundy's pet dog lacked a license and rabies shot. Both cases were closed after he submitted evidence to the contrary, Mr. Grundy said.
This year, Hong Kong's press freedom ranking fell to 140th out of 180 countries and territories, according to an index compiled by the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders. About 20 independent outlets in Hong Kong have closed since 2020, according to a study published last year by the Georgetown Center of Asian Law.
A press freedom survey conducted by the Foreign Correspondents Club in 2025 showed that more than half of the respondents were concerned about the risks of arrest or prosecution, and that 65 percent had self-censored in their coverage.
Mr. Grundy said that his outlet has always paid its taxes on time and had cooperated fully with the review. But that approach also came at a cost.
'I'm having to act as a one-man compliance department instead of a journalist,' he said. 'It's just not what I expected from the world's freest economy when I chose to set up a business here a decade ago.'