One in three journalists in Hong Kong admitted exercising 'self-censorship' over the past year, according to the latest Journalists' Association survey.
The findings also showed 87 per cent of the 663 respondents said press freedom in the city - a constitutional guarantee - had been eroded under Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's administration.
Association chairwoman Mak Yin-ting said the government was to blame for the deterioration in the media's performance of its role as the fourth estate alongside the executive, legislature and judiciary.
She cited the government's tighter grip on the flow of information as the major cause of concern, with officials relying more on press releases than granting media interviews.
Self-censorship as well as interference from Beijing and its liaison office in the city had become habitual, the report concluded.
'The results confirm a worrying trend in the industry, especially when compared with a similar survey by [the association] in January 2007,' the report said.