HONG KONG • Online news outlet Initium announced it was relocating to Singapore, citing fading press freedoms, the first Hong Kong media to quit the city as the authorities crack down on dissent.

The announcement came yesterday, when veteran broadcaster Steve Vines and Mr Kacey Wong, one of the city's best known political artists, also confirmed they had left Hong Kong because of declining freedoms.

"Over the past six years, the road to freedom has become tougher and more dangerous, the world is increasingly polarised and antagonistic," Initium's chief editor Susie Wu wrote in an article commemorating the outlet's sixth year anniversary.

She cited Hong Kong's steady slide down press freedom rankings and the rise of "little pinks" - staunch nationalists - in China.

Initium is a Chinese-language outlet with some 60,000 paying subscribers. But its departure illustrates the concerns many media outlets have about their future in Hong Kong.

A sweeping national security law imposed last year has criminalised much dissent and the authorities have embarked on a campaign to root out those deemed unpatriotic. Many of the city's most prominent pro-democracy activists have been arrested or jailed. Others have fled overseas.

Yesterday, public broadcaster RTHK confirmed veteran host Vines had left for Britain, blaming what he said was "white terror sweeping through Hong Kong".

"The institutions that ensure the liberty of Hongkongers are being dismantled by people who care so little they don't even flinch when it becomes abundantly clear the very essence of the place is being destroyed," he wrote in an e-mail to colleagues.

In a separate interview with Hong Kong Free Press, political artist Wong said he had moved to Taiwan in search of "100 per cent freedom" because of diminishing freedoms in his home city.

Multiple international media companies have regional headquarters in Hong Kong, attracted by business-friendly regulations and free speech provisions written into the city's Constitution.

But many are questioning whether they have a future there.

The New York Times moved its Asia hub to South Korea after the security law was enacted last year. Last month the Hong Kong Journalists Association said press freedoms were "in tatters". The group cited the sudden closure of pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE