Our achievements, best coverage, & accounts

Dear readers and supporters,

HKFP marked 10 years of publishing in 2025 – with our newsroom reaching the milestone intact and motivated, if not somewhat battered and bruised by the political and economic pressures facing the media at home and globally.

Thanks to our members, we published dozens of original features last year, followed the “patriots only” elections, shared live reporting of the Wang Fuk Court fire tragedy, and provided a trusted account of the Jimmy Lai trial. Our team presented two special series: Hong Kong Originals and Partners in Pride, and we continued to cover every twist and turn of the national security clampdown. We also won an Excellence in Investigative Reporting SOPA honourable mention, and our photojournalist was a finalist in the Extreme Heat Photo Contest.

Away from the news beat, we refreshed the HKFP website last July with new branding, released new mobile apps, launched a new HKFP Monitor newsletter with our expert analysis of the week’s developments, and welcomed back our deer mascot. The HKFP deer refers to a Chinese proverb about the distortion of facts, and how we will never “call a deer a horse.”

In 2025, HKFP was also accepted as a member of the Journalism Trust Initiative following a rigorous, 130-point external audit of our editorial and ethical practices. And we put together eight new benefits for our recurring donors with the launch of our membership programme. Regular backers now enjoy ad-free browsing, exclusive content, feature previews, merch discounts and a free gift. Almost 300 new, regular contributors signed up. Yearly, and gift, subscriptions were also enabled later in the year.

Despite the successes, 2025 also saw our newsroom enter a fourth year of deficit with a record HK$1.9 million loss. We made aggressive cutbacks whilst seeking to protect jobs, staff pay and output. The situation was not helped by the drain on resources caused by a 20-month “random” tax inspection. Inland Revenue alleged a HK$3,020 tax shortfall that resulted in a HK$57,692 settlement, including penalties.

It is not the first government department to come knocking, and the city’s press freedom situation remains precarious. Nevertheless, we are still able to interact with sources and the government, bear witness at the legislature and write the first draft of history from the courtroom. The benefits of remaining on the ground still outweigh the alternatives, so our team is committed to continuing our mission alongside Hongkongers.

2026 heralds the Year of the Fire Horse – a symbol of resilience against adversity. And just as it defies the odds with strength and independence, we remain dedicated to fearless, impartial journalism – no matter the challenges ahead.

I am pleased to present our latest Annual Report and Transparency Report. Thank you to all of our readers, and especially our members, for your kind, ongoing support.

Partners in Pride: HKFP continued to shine a spotlight on marginalised communities throughout 2025. As Hong Kong awaited the government’s move to comply with the Court of Final Appeal’s ruling on recognising same-sex marriage, HKFP launched “Partners in Pride” – a three-part series delving into the unique challenges faced by LGBTQ couples in the city. 

In the first part, we spoke with same-sex couples who had tried to have a child, either through surrogacy, artificial insemination, or adoption. In the second part, LGBTQ parents shared with us the social and legal challenges of raising children in the city. In the third, and final, part, same-sex couples told us how they prepared after-death arrangements – a necessary step in a city where their marriages are not legally recognised.  

Hong Kong Originals: In our new Hong Kong Originals series, HKFP documents the craftsmanship and spirit behind goods that are still proudly “Made in Hong Kong.”

We spoke with the fourth-generation co-owner of Koon Chun Sauce Factory, a 96-year-old soy sauce manufacturer, as it was preparing to leave its Yuen Long facility to make way for the Northern Metropolis megaproject. Other old-time Hong Kong companies we highlighted included Wing Lok Noodle Factory, founded in 1976, and the Camel flask brand, established in 1940. Just in time for the Mid-Autumn Festival, we visited the family-run Kwan Hong Bakery in Sham Shui Po, which has been making handmade mooncakes and other traditional pastries since 1979. 

We also profiled younger, unique establishments, which have been around for less than a decade. We spoke with the founders of Two Moons Distillery, which produces artisanal liquors rooted in the city’s identity, as well as the architect behind social enterprise HK Timberbank, which gives Hong Kong’s typhoon-felled trees a second life as bespoke furniture.

Original Reporting: Shortly after the government unveiled the 2025-26 budget, we hit the streets to seek comments from people on the government’s cost-cutting measures in response to another year of financial deficits. 

Hong Kong was once again unwittingly caught in the US-China trade war, with US President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs on Chinese goods targeting the city’s products. We spoke with local entrepreneurs and analysts about the impact, and examined Washington’s cuts to Chinese-language media.

Trump’s presidency also affected refugees and asylum seekers who found themselves in limbo after his executive order suspended the US resettlement programme. 

We also shone a spotlight on the generosity of Hong Kong residents who give up their free time to visit foreign inmates they have never met in person. 

We followed former street sleepers volunteering to cook and distribute food to the homeless as a way “to give back to the community.” We chatted with eight former street sleepers who had overcome homelessness and drug addiction days before they flew to Oslo, Norway, to represent Hong Kong in the annual Homeless World Cup tournament. 

HKFP looked into why the city should have a homeless shelter on government land after NGO ImpactHK’s proposal was opposed by residents and ultimately rejected by authorities. 

In a city where housing prices are the highest in the world, many low-income Hongkongers live in subdivided flats, often in substandard conditions. We ran several stories linked to this social issue. 

We spoke with owners, operators, and tenants of subdivided units about the impact of the government’s plan to tighten requirements for “shoebox flats.” Collaborating with artists Miu Law and Victor Sham, sociologist Ruby Lai turned her research on tenants of subdivided units into an exhibition to highlight their real-life stories and challenge their stereotypes and stigmas.

We followed registered dietitians Joyce Chan and Hannah Wong, who teach underprivileged communities living in subdivided units how to transform soy pulp – the by-product of tofu and soya milk – into nutritious and delicious vegan dishes. 

Despite lagging behind jurisdictions like Taiwan and Thailand, which have embraced equal marriage, Hong Kong has come a long way in terms of LGBTQ rights. Researcher Connie Chan organised an exhibition charting the LGBTQ history in the city, from the 1980s to the 1990s, after the British colonial government decriminalised homosexuality. 

Ahead of the December “patriots only” legislative elections, HKFP looked into Hong Kong’s centrist, moderate groups, focusing on their struggles to secure candidate nominations since the 2021 electoral overhaul.

HKFP revisited the topic of emigration, years after a big wave of residents left the city. Facing red-tape delays in processing permanent residence applications, Hongkongers who moved to Canada under the lifeboat programme were pondering whether they should return home. We also spoke with veteran playwright Chan Ping-chiu and lead actor Chung Yik-sau before the re-run of Flowing Warblers – an award-winning drama that tells interconnected stories of Hongkongers living in four locations across Europe and in Hong Kong.

We examined cross-border issues, from Hong Kong families flocking to Shenzhen and other neighbouring mainland cities for affordable shopping and dining to mainland Chinese who have acquired top talent visas but decided not to live in the city.

HKFP also looked into pertinent topics related to local youth. Amidst the crackdown on “space oil,” an addictive substance popular among those aged 21 and under in Hong Kong, our talks with some former addicts and social workers helping young people kick the habit urged authorities to pay more attention to mental health. We also spoke with teenagers turning to artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for emotional support to deal with their mental health issues, unaware of the technology’s potential risks. 

HKFP was the only mainstream media outlet reporting on Hong Kong’s first children’s activity book featuring the city’s own ethnic minority women. We not only spoke with HKU law professor Puja Kapai and secondary school students who attended her campus programme and created Journey With Me Through Hong Kong, My Home, but also sought reactions from the city’s ethnic minorities.  

We joined the loyal patrons bidding farewell to Cinta-J Bar & Restaurant, a 42-year-old establishment beloved by Hong Kong’s Filipino community, and profiled an unorthodox vegetarian eatery that closed its doors.

As Israel’s war in Gaza continued in 2025, we profiled a small yet dedicated group of anti-war activists protesting in support of Palestinians – from gatecrashing an Israeli-backed film festival to marching through Tsim Sha Tsui. 

In health-related topics, we interviewed a mother who became one of the first donors at the Hospital Authority’s new breast milk bank. 

We also reported on how an art therapy programme helped residents cope with their cancer diagnosis and treatment. For migrant workers, cancer and other serious illnesses can be a double – or even triple – whammy. We talked with a Filipina domestic worker diagnosed with breast cancer who lost her job after she underwent chemotherapy, against her employer’s wishes. 

We highlighted complex challenges faced by workers injured at work in claiming their entitled compensation, causing one labourer to lose not only his job but also his savings, home, and even family. 

Following the exit of the UK-based Deliveroo app, the Hong Kong food delivery market is controlled by a duopoly: the Singapore-based Foodpanda and the Chinese-owned Keeta. Our feature looked at the aggressive expansion of the Chinese app and the long-term impact on businesses and workers in the city. 

HKFP spoke with Hongkongers whose family members were trafficked to and forced to work in scam farms in Myanmar. We revisited the issue when former district councillor Andy Yu, who has been supporting them, and social worker Frank Fung launched a book detailing the harrowing accounts of the victims and the great lengths their families went to bring them home.

We talked with Yau Tam Mei Tsuen residents, whose days in the village are numbered, as the Northern Metropolis project will start evicting them from their homes in 2027, uprooting ways of life in the northern New Territories. On the day of the eviction deadline, we visited the centuries-old Cha Kwo Ling Village in Kwun Tong, set to be redeveloped into public housing, and chatted with residents who stayed on. 

We did a deep dive into bird-window collisions at the University of Hong Kong, the city’s oldest tertiary institution, speaking with scholars and activists about the lethal problem and their efforts to tackle it.

Ahead of Ching Ming Festival, and weeks after a hill fire engulfed hundreds of trees in Mui Wo, we spoke with Lantau-based environmentalists and tree planters Paul Melsom and Jennifer Quinton, who called for better wildfire awareness. We visited Quinton’s house in Mui Wo, home to her eco-education centreArk Eden, and learned how she found her green calling.  

We also delved into human-interest stories behind Super Typhoon Ragasa, which lashed Hong Kong in September. There were small-business owners who took in cats and dogs living in animal shelters unequipped for the major storm. After a decades-old tree at Oi Man Estate was felled by Ragasa, we witnessed how HK Timberbank and Good Sense Lab, an NGO based at the housing complex, sought to salvage the timber and preserve a piece of history.

Tai Po Fire Tragedy: HKFP ran several in-depth reports on the massive Tai Po blaze, Hong Kong’s deadliest in nearly eight decades. Days after the fatal fire struck, we captured the anguish of Wang Fuk Court residents as they searched for their missing relatives and pets. We also highlighted self-mobilised grassroots relief efforts, including migrant workers’ groups, that quickly sprang up to support the victims. 

We later sat down with survivors grappling with the emotional toll of losing not only their homes but also people they knew, from family members to friends and neighbours.

Of the 168 people killed in the fire, 10 were migrant domestic workers: nine Indonesians and one Filipina. Domestic workers who survived the fire had to quickly pick up the pieces and deal with job insecurity as families employing them faced financial difficulties.

One month after the fire, we caught up with Wang Fuk Court residents still struggling to adapt to life amidst displacement and bereavement. 

Explanatory Reporting: We continued our monthly explainers on the impact of national security legislation on the city, both the Beijing-imposed law in 2020 and the homegrown law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, better known as Article 23, enacted in 2024.Five years after China enacted the national security law, we gave an overview of how the legislation permeated Hong Kong’s bureaucracy, from government departments to statutory bodies. We also tracked press freedom in the city – month by month – after the onset of the national security law, as well as mysterious venue cancellations, showing how much more frequent they have become since 2020.

We also looked at the six new offences and six “prohibited places” after Hong Kong enacted subsidiary legislation under Article 23 in mid-May, less than 24 hours after it was introduced to the opposition-free legislature. In a year that saw the disbandment of two more pro-democracy parties, we traced the history of the two opposition groups: the Democratic Party and the League of Social Democrats. 

After the CEO and staff of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) were questioned by national security police, our explainer offered a timely overview of the polling organisation and its history.  

We explained the government’s proposed same-sex partnerships bill as the Legislative Council (LegCo) debated the framework, which was eventually voted down by the lawmakers. And as the seventh LegCo term came to an end, we tracked down the first opposition-free legislature’s performance and compared it with its predecessors. 

With Hong Kong drawn into the US-China tariff war, HKFP looked at the timeline of the trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies, its impact on the city, and CK Hutchison’s ports deal, which includes facilities at the Panama Canal – a business decision derided by Beijing.

We delved into Hong Kong taxi licences to explain why their values had plummeted amidst the ongoing rivalry with Uber.

Shortly after a bottled water procurement scandal rocked the city over the summer, HKFP examined the controversy, those who might be held responsible, and the government’s tendering process.  

In the aftermath of the fatal blaze in Tai Po, we published several explainers related to the tragedy: looking at the deadliest fires recorded in Hong Kong, tracing the timeline of events leading up to the disaster and its aftermath, and shining a spotlight on the pervasive bid-rigging problem in the city’s building renovation industry.

Jimmy Lai trial: HKFP bore witness to every twist and turn of the trial of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, publishing an accurate, permanent record of the Apple Daily founder’s national security hearings. He was found guilty in late 2025.

Interviews: Throughout 2025, HKFP conducted and published in-depth interviews with newsmakers, movers and shakers in Hong Kong.

We spoke with filmmakers – director Benson Koo, sound designer Stan Chan, and the rest of the production team at Wave Pictures – who crisscrossed the city to host 100 community screenings of their feature, The Perks of Being Wild, which was never shown in a cinema. 

Indie band An Id Signal talked about their long-awaited new album, The Path Where Grief and Joy Intersect, which was born out of the 2019 protests and the Covid-19 pandemic. We sat down with post-punk band Restless Waters following the release of their new album and ahead of its release party. 

We also spoke with poet and translator Tim Tim Cheng, whose social awakening began after watching An Id Signal perform in Choi Yuen Tsuen, a soon-to-be-demolished village. 

Hong Kong-born filmmaker Robin Lee talked about Four Trails, after his documentary about runners competing in the city’s gruelling ultramarathon race became an unexpected box-office success. Videographer Chris Owen told us how he developed a passion for Hong Kong’s wildlife and the challenges of capturing animals on camera. 

Days before leaving for his new post in Beijing, US Consul General Gregory May gave HKFP one of his last interviews in Hong Kong, discussing everything from his favourite local dishes to diplomatic relations.

And weeks before her term ended, departing first-time lawmaker Doreen Kong welcomed us to her office as she talked about being labelled “outspoken,” her plans after leaving office, and the state of civic society in Hong Kong. 

We visited artist Steven Leung at his studio, where his passion for food inspires him to create drawings of everyday Hong Kong cuisine, and chatted with Japanese photographer Miyuki Kume, a collector of thousands of Hong Kong-made vintage pieces. 

We profiled darts players Mathew Lee and Hugo Leung, who say they are the only ones in Hong Kong making a living from the sport’s cash prizes and sponsorships.

Hong Kong nurse Krystal So, who recently returned from her third deployment with medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), shared stories about the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and her experience helping Palestinians in war-torn Gaza

Scoops: In an exclusive, we revealed that at least six independent bookstores faced simultaneous tax audits.

We also looked into how government appeals and prolonged court proceedings took a personal toll on defendants in 2019 protest-related cases.

In another scoop, we spoke with Anthony Chiu, who, for several years, had driven his Porsche with the licenceplate number “US 8964” on the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary. He disclosed a year of harassment and his decision to ship his beloved car overseas ahead of June 4.

We sat down with the leaders of Lingnan University Student Union and learned about their standoff with the university after it imposed new rules on the student group – the latest sign of uneasy relations between students’ unions wishing to represent their peers and universities seeking greater control over student leaders.

HKFP’s original reporting was recognised in 2025 with two new awards

In June, HKFP won an honourable mention at the prestigious Society of Publishers in Asia awards. Our investigation into Hong Kong’s role in illegal deforestation of the Amazon rainforest was recognised in the excellence in Investigative Reporting category.

In December, Photography by HKFP’s Kyle Lam was shortlisted in the Extreme Heat Photo Contest, organised by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Global Heat Health Information Network.