Beijing’s ax eventually hit Hong Kong’s most popular pro-democracy newspaper, theApple Daily, founded by Jimmy Lay and ended up in the crosshairs with raids and arrests in the editorial office in recent days and freezing of assets. In fact, the last opposition newspaper left on the streets, will not be released from today. And, all over Hong Kong, people lined up to buy the latest print edition.
The announcement came a few hours after the newspaper’s board of directors announced that the latest edition would be released “no later than Saturday.” But then, “taking into account the safety of the staff”, the management decided to “cease operations immediately after midnight”.
Apple Daily was founded 26 years ago by Lai, the pro-democracy activist at the forefront of criticism of Beijing in jail since late 2020, and is famous for its mix of pro-democracy editorials, celebrity gossip and investigations. against the powerful. The situation worsened last week, with a spectacular blitz of 200 agents in the editorial office of the tabloid, confiscation of materials and handcuffs taken on the wrists of director Ryan Law and the top management of Lai’s Next Digital publishing company.
As if the 5 arrests weren’t enough – the charges are the same as the multimillionaire, hostile businesses in collusion with foreign forces – the $ 2.3 million asset freeze of three companies linked to the newspaper has been frozen. The raid was the second in order of time: the first took place in August last year with the arrest of the tycoon in the aftermath of the highly contested new national security regulations imposed by Beijing. And theApple Daily, which unsuccessfully asked for at least part of the funds to be defrosted, collapsed, unable to pay the salaries of nearly 1,300 employees.
“I have tens of thousands of words in my heart, but I’m speechless now,” said Next Digital’s president, Ip Yut-kin. The closure “seriously undermines the freedom and pluralism of the media, which are essential for any open and free society,” thundered the EU, on the day the first trial without jury opened in Hong Kong against an activist accused of having wounded three agents, and therefore of terrorism. “The erosion of press freedom is also contrary to Hong Kong’s aspirations as an international trading center.”
Brussels recalled that “these freedoms are enshrined in the Basic Law and that China has made international commitments”. While London has denounced that the national security law imposed by China in the former colony of the Kingdom “has chilling consequences on the freedom of the press”. But the closure of the newspaper “will not be the last,” says Sharron Fast, a professor at the journalism school of the University of Hong Kong. “If what you write could put you in danger of life imprisonment, you are already censored. From now on, here it is as if every reporter had a gun pointed at his head ».