Senior journalists from several major outlets operating in the city, including AFP, were summoned to the meeting by the Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS), which was opened in 2020 following Beijing's imposition of a wide-ranging national security law on the city.

Through the OSNS, Beijing's security agents operate openly in Hong Kong, with powers to investigate and prosecute national security crimes.

"Recently, some foreign media reports on Hong Kong have disregarded facts, spread false information, distorted and smeared the government's disaster relief and aftermath work, attacked and interfered with the Legislative Council election, (and) provoked social division and confrontation," an OSNS statement posted online shortly after the meeting said.

At the meeting, an official who did not give his name read out a similar statement to media representatives.

He did not give specific examples of coverage that the OSNS had taken issue with, and did not take questions.

The online OSNS statement urged journalists to "not cross the legal red line".

"The Office will not tolerate the actions of all anti-China and trouble-making elements in Hong Kong, and 'don't say we didn't warn you'," it read.

For the past week and a half, news coverage in Hong Kong has been dominated by a deadly blaze on a residential estate which killed at least 159 people.

Authorities have warned against crimes that "exploit the tragedy" and have reportedly arrested at least three people for sedition in the fire's aftermath.

Dissent in Hong Kong has been all but quashed since Beijing brought in the national security law after huge and sometimes violent protests in 2019.

Hong Kong's electoral system was revamped in 2021 to ensure that only "patriots" could hold office, and the upcoming poll on Sunday will select a second batch of lawmakers under those rules.

- 'Black-clad violence' -

At a separate police news conference on Saturday, authorities warned there were "familiar" scenes that recalled the 2019 protests at the main site where members of the public have gathered to mourn the fire's victims.

"I've been there to observe, and I think the situation was becoming more and more like that of 'black-clad violence'," said Steve Li, chief superintendent of the police's National Security Department, referring to some 2019 protestors' favoured colour of clothing.

The National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force is part of local law enforcement and is separate from the OSNS.

Li said some people at the mourning site distributed pamphlets and posted slogans that were "basically unrelated to the disaster and only aimed to incite hatred".

Li announced that national security police arrested a 71-year-old man on Saturday for "prejudicing a national security investigation" -- the first such arrest in Hong Kong -- as well as for sedition.