The Palgrave Handbook of Media Misinformation

Abstract

While the field of professional fact-checking has grown steadily in Hong Kong as a countermeasure to tackle misinformation, concerns over politicisation and misappropriation of this practice have also become salient. Investigation of widely shared information in public, particularly political statements, could be a delicate affair in the Special Administrative Region of China. Despite the challenges, many stakeholders—from media organisations to community groups to governmental authorities—engage in fact-checking constantly while educators have also incorporated it into media literacy programmes. In this chapter, the author explores the historical development of fact-checking amid political upheavals and discusses its impact and implications on the news industry and educational sectors in Hong Kong.