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Students demonstrate in Hong Kong, where protests are now in their second month. Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Every time Alice Lau visits Hong Kongs pro-democracy protests, she wears two photo ID badges, slung around her neck in a clear plastic sheath.

The first badge identifies her as a full-time employee of a pro-government newspaper. Every day, her employer condemns the unprecedented protests, now in their second month, for wreaking havoc on the citys transportation networks and economic vitality. The second card identifies her as a volunteer reporter for an outspoken Facebook-based news outlet with more than 100,000 subscribers.

One badge always obscures the other. By day, she displays the first. By night, as she camps out in protest zones and faces down riot police, she displays the second. Few protesters read her newspaper, but most have probably seen her work.

Alice Lau is a pseudonym. Revealing her name or employer could get her fired, she said, and revealing her Facebook platform could invite undue scrutiny. Its not like I want people to think Im a hero, she said over iced milk tea at a McDonalds in Admiralty district, the protests de facto core. I just feel like I need to use my talents to help Hong Kong, to help my community. Im just an ordinary citizen.

Hong Kongs traditional media is suffering a crisis of confidence. Many of the citys most influential newspapers and TV stations are owned by local tycoons who, wary of jeopardising their mainland business ties, have taken great pains to maintain a conservative editorial line. The citys young people have responded by turning to social media for news and thus, the ongoing umbrella movement may be the best-documented social movement in history, with even its quieter moments generating a maelstrom of status updates, shares and likes.

Press freedom in Hong Kong is not in a good state its not an authoritarian regime yet, but the pressure is on, said Mark Simon, a senior executive at Next Media, the citys only openly pro-democratic media conglomerate. Whats saving the city now are these group acts of journalistic courage.

The protests intensely public nature has fostered a heightened sense of caution. Although few protesters expect a Tiananmen-style crackdown, which would almost certainly spur an exodus from the city, many fear that Beijing will find ways to persecute organisers and high-profile supporters in a gradual, retroactive campaign. Many volunteer supply booths at the protest sites prominently display no photo signs, a plea to keep their operators identities under wraps.

Simon said that a crackdown, while unlikely, would be devastating for the city. Can Hong Kong survive with [student leader] Joshua Wong in jail, or [Next Media CEO] Jimmy Lai in jail do you think Hong Kong could survive that? I say no. It wont work. The worlds not going to treat you the same.

Since Beijing assumed control of Hong Kong in a 1997 handover, it has ruled the the city under a one country, two systems arrangement, granting it freedoms unknown on the mainland, including an independent judiciary, freedom of assembly, and an unrestricted press. Among these, the last is perhaps the most conspicuous the city has 18 newspapers and a string of scandal-hungry TV and radio stations, many of them notorious for broadcasting unscrupulous celebrity gossip and political exposs.

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Hong Kong protests bring crisis of confidence for traditional media