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Abstract
Existing literatures recognise the Chinese government's intention since the handover was to assert political control over Hong Kong's mainstream media by enforcing self-censorship. This is evident by the way politically sensitive news were dealt with, which directly or indirectly relate to the interests of China. Since late September 2014, the Umbrella Movement (or Umbrella Revolution) has become a delicate issue in both China and Hong Kong. For locals, this movement was a student-led campaign to champion universal suffrage without unreasonable political screening; however, Beijing considered the campaign a threat to its authority. So, how did Hong Kong media respond to this political conundrum? This study found that most mainstream media organisations took an anti-movement stance and practise self-censorship so as not to offend the Chinese government. For this reason many Hong Kong people became dissatisfied and turn to the Internet to criticise mainstream media and to support the Umbrella Movement. Overall, online media have created an alternative political space attracting critically minded and democratic-oriented Hong Kong citizens.
Keywords: the Umbrella Movement, media self-censorship, Internet alternative media, mainstream media, Hong Kong and China
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1. Introduction
Existing literatures recognise that the Chinese government has been attempting to control Hong Kong media through inducing media self-censorship since the 1997 handover, which is seen as a threat to press freedom (Lee and Lin, 2006; Ma, 2007). A survey in 2014 showed that 49.1 per cent of citizens believed the Hong Kong media practised self-censorship (HKUPOP, 2014a) and 56.7 per cent believed the media had reservations about criticising the Chinese government (HKUPOP, 2014b). The problem of media self-censorship is especially evident in relation to politically sensitive news topics. These include Taiwan independence, commemoration of the Tiananmen incident, and the legal status of the Falun Gong in Hong Kong, because they either directly or indirectly challenge the legitimacy and authority of Beijing (Lee and Chan, 2009). Thus, media treatments of these topics are also what most academics and commentators make reference to when evaluating media self-censorship (Cheung, 2003; Fung, 2007). Given this situation, a series of academic works have found that most mainstream media organisations tend to avoid these sensitive matters or use alternative means (inviting external commentaries or employing foreign media reports)...