A newspaper in Hong Kong has fired a political cartoonist, Wong Kei-Kwan, after four decades of publishing satire cartoons due to government officials’ disapproval of comic content.

The Ming Pao, a Chinese-language newspaper, said it would stop publishing Wong Kei-Kwan cartoons.

“Ming Pao thanks Zunzi for witnessing with us the changing times in the past 40 years,” it said in a statement.

Mr Kei-Kwan’s published cartoons have been pulled out of the public domain.

The 68-year-old, who goes by the pen name Zing, has been running satirical cartoons in newspapers since 1983. He was accused of smearing the government’s image and misleading the public.

Mr Kei-Kwan said he would continue to speak out despite the situation.

“The situation continues to develop in a bad direction,” he told Reuters.

“There are still many journalists who continue to speak out on different platforms, and comics are only one form. I will continue to speak out when I have the opportunity.”

The move is widely seen as another step to control the media and press freedom in Hong Kong under a controversial national security law.