Hong Kong Journalists Association
Stories were exaggerated often violating privacy. A study was conducted by Hong Kong Journalists Association in early 2007 to find that 58.4% of journalists in Hong Kong considered that the degree of freedom of speech had decreased since the handover in 1997. Furthermore, nearly 60% of the interviewed journalists also thought that more self-censorship had been practised then than 1997. Thirty percent of media workers participating in the survey admitted to having self-censored, and some forty percent knew of colleagues who had practised self-censorship. The chairman of the HKJA pointed out that after this self-censorship of media is related to political and economic pressures traceable linked to the Communist Party of China (CPC). She suggested that many media owners are representatives of the National People's Congress, have investments or eye investment opportunities in the mainland and are reluctant to jeopardise the political relationship.