About Commons

Commons

Commons (Chinese: 同文, Tongwen) is a Chinese-language, online-only Hong Kong news website founded in October 2021. It is based in Taiwan, with headquarters also in the United Kingdom, and it primarily covers Hong Kong political news and the lives of the global Hong Kong diaspora. Established in direct response to the consecutive shutdowns of pro-democracy media outlets in Hong Kong, Commons set out to fill the information deficit left behind when titles that had served Hong Kong readers for years disappeared within a short period. Its political alignment is described as pro-democracy, and all of its content is freely accessible online, with no subscription model and no advertising.

Origins in a closing media landscape

Commons was founded in October 2021, at a moment when Hong Kong's pro-democracy media sector was contracting rapidly. The Apple Daily newspaper had closed, and the online outlets Stand News and Citizen News were also shutting down in the same period. According to accounts of its founding, Commons aimed to fill the vacuum those closures created: readers who had relied on independent, pro-democracy reporting in Chinese were losing their sources one after another, and the new website was created to continue telling Hong Kong's story from outside the territory. The timing mattered. Because reporting on many political topics inside Hong Kong had become legally risky under the Hong Kong national security law, an outlet based offshore could address subjects considered controversial under that law in ways that newsrooms still operating inside Hong Kong increasingly could not.

Founders and editorial team

The website was established by a team of eight people, including former journalists from the now-defunct Apple Daily and politician Michael Ngan, who is listed as its founder and also serves as the website's chief international affairs critic. A Taiwanese-Hongkonger writing under the pseudonym "A Muk" serves as editor-in-chief. Scholar Simon Shen acts as coordinator for the editorial team. Reporter Nilk Wu, a co-founder of DB Channel, moved to Taiwan and joined Commons after Frankie Fung, another DB Channel co-founder, was arrested for violating national security laws in 2021. The use of pseudonyms by senior editorial figures, and the presence of journalists displaced from closed Hong Kong newsrooms, are defining features of the outlet's staffing and reflect the circumstances in which it was created.

Why Taiwan, and a second base in Britain

Commons is Taiwan-based and maintains headquarters in both Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Taiwan was chosen as its base in part because it shares a timezone with Hong Kong, allowing the newsroom to provide more timely reports on Hong Kong news as events unfold. The British presence reflects the geography of the Hong Kong diaspora itself: after the introduction of new migration routes, large numbers of Hongkongers settled in the United Kingdom, and Commons positioned staff where its subjects now live. In its early days, many overseas Hongkongers in the United Kingdom and Canada were hired by Commons to conduct interviews and report on local events, an arrangement originally intended to provide round-the-clock coverage of the Hong Kong diaspora globally.

An interview-led approach to diaspora reporting

Interviews are the core of Commons' journalism. Within six months of its launch, the website had published over 50 interviews featuring stories about overseas Hongkongers in Taiwan, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe. Rather than replicating the breaking-news model of a conventional newsroom, Commons built its identity around long conversations with emigrants: why they left, how they rebuilt their lives, and how they continue to follow events at home. The British Broadcasting Corporation found that Commons was able to amplify the overlooked voices of migrating Hongkongers, while Voice of America noted that the outlet provided rare and new opportunities for the growing number of exiled Hong Kong journalists. As other similar overseas media emerged after the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, Commons redefined its focus toward news and events that mainstream media often overlooked.

War reporting from Ukraine and Poland

In 2022, Commons sent journalists, including Nilk Wu, to Ukraine and Poland to report on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. An editor using the pseudonym "YC" explained that the team took up war journalism because they found the situation in Ukraine similar to the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, and because many Hongkongers were concerned about the human rights situation there. The assignment was a notable undertaking for a small, donation-funded start-up: it placed reporters from a Hong Kong diaspora outlet on the ground in a European war zone, covering both the conflict itself and the refugee movement into Poland for a Chinese-language audience whose interest was shaped by its own recent experience of protest and displacement.

Working with very few people

Commons has always operated with a very small staff. By July 2022 it had retained only two full-time staff members, including A Muk and another staff member focused on news design, along with six stringers spread across Taiwan, the United Kingdom and Canada. Its journalists operated on a rotating schedule, working two to three days each week. By July 2023, the website had three full-time staff members based in Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Reporting by Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Taiwan's Central News Agency, The Reporter in Taiwan, Flow Magazine and the BBC has documented these working conditions, portraying Commons as part of a wider generation of exiled Hong Kong media projects trying to sustain professional journalism on minimal resources outside the territory.

Funding by public donations

Commons has no subscription model and carries no advertising. Because its coverage deals with controversial political subjects, no companies advertise on the site, and its expenses have relied on public donations. That funding model shapes what the outlet can do: in late April 2023, Commons began reducing its written news coverage of international affairs because of a lack of operational funding. The trade-offs are visible in its output — a small rotating team, a reliance on stringers in diaspora communities, and periodic retrenchment when donations fall short — but the model also preserves its editorial independence, since there are no advertisers or proprietors whose interests might conflict with its pro-democracy reporting.

Audio and video expansion in 2023

In 2023, Commons launched an audio news series on YouTube and Patreon, incorporating video interviews with overseas Hongkongers in a podcast style, with two to three videos posted weekly. The move extended its interview-led approach into formats suited to diaspora audiences who follow Hong Kong news on social platforms. Its social following gives a sense of that audience: as of May 2023, the website had over 42,000 followers on Facebook and 21,000 followers on Instagram. For a newsroom of two or three full-time staff, those numbers represent a substantial direct channel to readers in Hong Kong and across the emigrant communities in Taiwan, Britain, Canada and Europe that the outlet was created to serve.

Place among exiled Hong Kong media

Commons is catalogued by Circle 19, the organisation documenting independent China-related media, among the independent outlets covering Hong Kong from outside. It belongs to a cohort of diaspora publications founded after 2019 by journalists who left, or were displaced from, Hong Kong newsrooms, and its history — a founding team of eight, a pseudonymous editor, stringers on three continents and donation funding — illustrates both the resilience and the fragility of that cohort. Profiled by Voice of America, the BBC, Radio Free Asia, the Central News Agency and The Reporter, Commons has been treated by international media as a case study in how Hong Kong journalism continued after the closure of its best-known pro-democracy titles, relocating offshore while keeping its focus, in Chinese, on Hong Kong politics and the people who left.

Official website

Commons publishes at commonshk.com. The site is in Chinese and is freely accessible, carrying its interview features, Hong Kong and international political news, and links to its audio and video output on YouTube and Patreon.