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| Congratulations to the new FCC Board of Governors for 2026-2027. They will begin serving after the Annual General Meeting on 28 May 2026. |
| We would like to thank the outgoing Board members for their service. |
| One of the candidates for Correspondent Governor, Connor Mycroft, withdrew from the election on 20 May 2026 so a by-election will need to be held in the new board year to fill in the vacant eighth Correspondent Governor position. |
| The new Board members are listed below. |
| PRESIDENT Morgan M. DAVIS |
| FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Jing YANG |
| SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Christopher SLAUGHTER |
| CORRESPONDENT GOVERNORS Jennifer JETT Karen KOH Dean NAPOLITANO Peter PARKS Paul TAIT Laura WESTBROOK William ZHENG |
| JOURNALIST GOVERNORS Zela CHIN Joe PAN |
| ASSOCIATE GOVERNORS FU Ka Min, Tom Alan Forbes MACDONALD Lynne MULHOLLAND Stephen VICKERS |
| FCC Election Committee 21 May 2026 |
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System Health Check
Letter from the President
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| Dear Members, |
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| This year has started off on a chaotic note. Thankfully not for us as a club, but certainly for the world. |
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| We’ve seen global tensions flare up into war. We’ve dealt with volatile markets and travel confusion. AI continues to dominate our conversations. |
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| In this first quarter, journalists have been there through it all, giving us daily updates, sometimes at their own peril. While Hong Kong may feel like it is on the outer rim of the chaos, journalists here are also feeling the squeeze. |
| At the Club, we started the year with our annual Press Freedom Survey. This survey of our Correspondent and Journalist Members takes the temperature of the media landscape in Hong Kong as we seek to reflect on the stressors and challenges these Members may be facing. |
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| Notably, this year 67% said the working environment for them as journalists has changed for the worse in the past 12 months, and half said that sources have become less willing to talk. Please flip to page 14 to read about our survey and results in more detail. |
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| The results of this survey are timely, as we celebrated World Press Freedom Day on 3 May. We honour journalists and press freedom, a right that is enshrined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. |
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| Looking ahead, the FCC will continue to support our Correspondent and Journalist Members with trainings, events and our committee work. In May we will host our annual Journalism Conference, which is chock full of interesting speakers and helpful insights for today’s media. We already have a number of registrations from local journalism students. This is a group that we want to encourage to develop their skills and tell Hong Kong stories. |
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| To our Associate Members, we thank you for your continued support of the Club and its efforts. We are all in this together and we couldn’t provide a safe space for learning and engagement without you. |
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| Best Regards, |
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| Morgan M. Davis President |
| [email protected] |
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Statement on Results of FCC Press Freedom Survey 2025-2026
Between February and March, the FCC Press Freedom Committee surveyed Correspondent and Journalist members in an annual exercise to understand how the sentiment and perception of the local environment has changed for the Club’s media professionals.
The survey received 78 anonymous responses, representing a 27% response rate, compared to 21% last year.
67% of respondents said the working environment for them as a journalist had changed for the worse in the last 12 months, and more than 50% said sources had become less willing to be quoted during the same period.
65% of respondents said they have a clear sense of what subjects are sensitive, compared to 78% last year. 37% percent of them said they had not at all encountered censorship in their news organizations, with 28% experiencing “slight” censorship and 15% “considerably.”
33% of respondents said their organizations have downsized in Hong Kong, with 33% of them citing both the changing political and legal environment as well as corporate cost-cutting as the reason. 17% of them said their organizations have increased staffing in the city over the past year, with 40% of them citing both the growing importance of Hong Kong and more investment from the parent company as the reason.
The FCC supports journalists’ fundamental right to conduct their work freely and without fear of intimidation or harassment.
We will continue to safeguard press freedom in the city, via engagement with the journalism community and relevant stakeholders, in order to make sure that Hong Kong remains an international hub for media, business and finance.
Read the full results of the survey in the latest edition of the club’s magazine, The Correspondent.
FCC Statement on World Press Freedom Day 2026 (Sunday, May 3, 2026)
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day 2026, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong stands in solidarity with journalists and media professionals worldwide, and supports their efforts to continue their work without interference and physical or online violence.
Globally, the state of press freedom is deteriorating. Economic pressures on media outlets, ownership concentration, and the increasing use of AI threatens jobs and creates misinformation and audience distrust among other factors, leading to worsening working conditions for journalists.
Recent figures from Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists show that press freedom is still being undermined by lethal violence and widespread detention of journalists around the world.
In addition, government censorship through actions such as management control of media outlets, blocking of the internet, restricting journalist visas or freedom to travel, and using legal means to silence critics is on the rise.
Independent journalism is essential to truth, accountability, and informed public life, and it must be protected wherever it is under pressure. Journalism is not a crime.