{"id":879576,"date":"2026-09-04T10:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/879576\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T10:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:10:17","slug":"cnbc-latest-to-pull-back-from-hk-as-local-office-closes-shows-axed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/879576\/","title":{"rendered":"CNBC latest to pull back from HK as local office closes, shows axed"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNBC has become the latest media outlet to pull back from Hong Kong, with owner Versant Media Group closing its local office as part of \u201cprogramming and production restructuring,\u201d according<\/a> to Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

\"CNBC\"CNBC. Photo: CNBC.<\/p>\n

The US broadcaster said that several daily shows, including Inside India, The China Connection, and Europe Early Edition, have been axed, while CNBC Meets and Built for Billions will also reportedly come to an end.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternational editorial coverage will continue to be led from London, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Beijing,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cAs part of these programming and production changes, the Hong Kong bureau will close, while editorial coverage of Hong Kong and the wider region will continue as part of our Asia reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n

CNBC saw over a dozen layoffs this year after media conglomerate Comcast spun off the business news channel and its sister network MS NOW \u2013 formerly MSNBC \u2013 into a new company called Versant Media Group.<\/p>\n

Media groups exit city<\/p>\n

Although long seen as a regional media hub, several international news operations have scaled back their operations in Hong Kong or left the city entirely in recent years.<\/p>\n

This April, Yahoo began to scale back its local presence after 27 years, with most full-time news staff laid off<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In 2024, The Wall Street Journal relocated its Asia headquarters<\/a> from Hong Kong to Singapore, while US-backed Radio Free Asia shuttered in Hong Kong<\/a> citing the implementation of the security law.<\/p>\n

\"NewThe New York Times headquarters in New York. File photo: HKFP\/Tom Grundy.<\/p>\n

In 2020, The New York Times shifted a third of its Hong Kong staff to South Korea<\/a> also citing security law concerns.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bloomberg, the Financial Times and the Associated Press are among the foreign outlets that have seen staff face visa difficulties.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong has plummeted in international press freedom<\/a> indices since the onset of the 2020 and 2024 security laws<\/a>. Watchdogs cite the arrest and jailing of journalists<\/a>, raids on newsrooms<\/a> and the closure of around 10 media outlets including Apple Daily<\/a>, Stand News<\/a> and Citizen News<\/a>. Over 1,000 journalists<\/a> have lost their jobs, whilst many have emigrated<\/a>. Meanwhile, the city\u2019s government-funded broadcaster RTHK has adopted new editorial guidelines<\/a>, purged its archives<\/a> and axed news<\/a> and satirical<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n

See also:\u00a0Explainer: Hong Kong\u2019s press freedom under the national security law<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2022, Chief Executive John Lee said press freedom<\/a> was \u201cin the pocket\u201d of Hongkongers but \u201cnobody is above the law.\u201d Although he has told the press to \u201ctell a good Hong Kong story<\/a>,\u201d government departments have been reluctant to respond to story pitches<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Youtube<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNBC has become the latest media outlet to pull back from Hong Kong, with owner Versant Media Group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,175931,134,81428,75646,427,449051],"class_list":["post-879576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cnbc","tag-entertainment","tag-not-main","tag-press-freedom","tag-tv","tag-versant-media-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}