Hong Kong Press and News Executives’ Associations Sign MOU with Khabar Agency in Kazakhstan

On June 2, 2026, the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong (香港報業公會) and the Hong Kong News Executives’ Association (新職行政人員協會) signed a memorandum of understanding with Khabar Agency (哈巴爾通訊社), Kazakhstan’s state-owned broadcaster, in Astana. The signing took place during a visit to Kazakhstan by Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu (李家超), who led a high-level delegation that for the first time included representatives of Hong Kong’s press industry. Under the agreement, the parties committed to jointly promoting what they described as “accurate narratives” about their respective regions, and to facilitating professional exchanges, training programs, and journalist study visits — language that mirrors official PRC framing around Western dominance of global public opinion and the need for alternative narrative channels. The agreement was one of seven MOUs signed between Hong Kong media and public and private sector counterparts in Kazakhstan during the visit. Hong Kong’s director of information services, Tse Chun-chung (謝振中), who accompanied the delegation in his first overseas trip in that role, said the visit responded to a policy direction set out in the previous year’s Policy Address to help local media expand networks beyond Hong Kong and “tell Hong Kong’s story well” (說好香港故事) — a phrase that echoes Xi Jinping’s directive to “tell China’s story well” (講好中國故事), a formulation used in the context of both tightening domestic media control and extending Chinese state influence over China’s narrative overseas.