You might be interested in the satirical Lily Wong comic strips, which were published in the English-language newspaper South China Morning Post during the governorships of Lord Wilson and Chris Patten, and featured a Hongkonger married to a gweilo (white) expat. The comic tackled many of Hong Kong's then-contemporary issues, from gweilo priviledge, to corruption in the Legislative Council and in the development sector, to the uncertainty surrounding HK's post-Handover fate, to the totalitarian nature of the mainland Communist government. It was in fact the critical nature of the comic strip towards the mainland government that eventually led to the comic's demise, and not its criticism of the British colonial government. So HK did in fact have a comparatively free press during that period. That is not to say, however, that HK was a complete democracy, since the governor of HK, as well as many other people on the Legislative Council, were always appointed from London, and not directly elected by the people.