From mainstream to the margins: Regime-driven delegitimisation of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy critical journalistic norms

Abstract

The enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law on 30 June 2020 provides a case for examining how state power seeks to reconfigure journalistic norms and media legitimacy. Following the NSL, multiple pro-democracy critical news outlets, including Apple Daily and Stand News, ceased operations or were restructured, and senior staff members were prosecuted under national security-related charges. Soon after, former staff launched new, small-scale news outlets. Drawing on the concepts of legitimacy and delegitimisation, this article examines how legal and discursive power is deployed to redefine the boundary between mainstream and alternative journalism, relegating previously recognised pro-democracy critical journalistic norms to the margins. The analysis demonstrates how news media legitimacy is actively constructed through state intervention, and how “alternative media” emerges as an outcome of delegitimisation rather than oppositional intent. By conceptualising media closure and marginalisation as processes of legitimacy reordering, the article contributes to theoretical debates on alternative media and journalistic norms.