Hong Kong's press freedom has declined for three consecutive years as Beijing interferes with the city's media through its liaison office, according to an annual report by monitoring group Reporters Without Borders.
The France-based group's 2014 press freedom index ranked Hong Kong 61st worldwide, a position the local Journalists Association called "worrying".
Mainland China was ranked 175th among the 180 countries and regions surveyed by the report.
Not only had Beijing failed to improve its treatment of outspoken dissident bloggers and journalists, it had also used "its influence over the media in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, compromising their independence", the group noted.
"China's growing economic weight is allowing it to extend its influence over the media in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, which had been largely spared political censorship until recently. Media independence is now in jeopardy in these three territories," it said.