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Police officers from the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police took the Chief Executive Officer of Next Media Zhang Jianhong (middle) into the Headquarters Building of Next Media. The use of some editing and broadcasting equipment has been restricted by the police.
At around 7 o’clock this morning, the Hong Kong Police’s National Security Service cited the National Security Act to search the headquarters of One Media Group and the “Apple Daily” newspaper, and arrested the head of the “Apple Daily” on suspicion of “conspiring to collude with foreign countries or foreign forces to endanger national security.” Five newspaper executives including editor Luo Weiguang.
This is another large-scale search of the newspaper by the Hong Kong police since August 2020. Senior Superintendent Li Guihua of the National Security Service of the Hong Kong Police Force said Thursday (June 17) that the National Security Service carried out a search based on a court search warrant and was authorized by the court to seize news materials. The police dispatched more than 500 people to carry out the relevant operations and frozen the assets of the three affiliated companies of the “Apple Daily” totaling 18 million Hong Kong dollars (2.32 million U.S. dollars; 14.88 million yuan).
According to local media reports in Hong Kong, the arrested executives included Zhang Jianhong, Chief Executive Officer of Next Media, Zhou Daquan, Chief Operating Officer of Next Media Group, Chen Peimin, Vice President of Apple Daily, Luo Weiguang, Editor-in-Chief, and Zhang Zhiwei, Director of Apple Mobile News Platform. More than 100 police officers enclosed the newspaper office, reporters, editors and other employees had to register with the police when they entered the building, and some editing and reporting equipment had been restricted by the police.
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Luo Weiguang, Editor-in-Chief of Apple Daily
After the founder of Next Media, Li Zhiying, was arrested last year, the court cited the Hong Kong National Security Act and refused to release him on bail. He was later sentenced to imprisonment for other demonstrations and assemblies.
The police statement stated that four men and a woman, aged between 47 and 63, were arrested early Thursday morning. “They are suspected of violating Article 29 of the National Security Law on the crime of conspiring to collude with foreign or foreign forces to endanger national security. The police have also searched the arrested person’s residence. Five people are now being detained for investigation.”
When meeting reporters outside the newspaper, Li Guihua said that the police investigation found that from 2019 to the present (note: the “Hong Kong National Security Law” took effect at 23:00 Hong Kong time on June 30, 2020), “Apple Daily” has dozens of appeals Foreign countries imposed sanctions on Hong Kong and mainland China for articles in Chinese and English. The police believed that “there is strong evidence” to take this arrest and search operation, and it does not rule out that other people were arrested later.
Li Guihua also stated that the police “takes considerable attention to freedom of the press,” but international conventions allow searches of news organizations for national security reasons. He urged journalists to “not provoke suspicion.”
In a search operation in August last year, the Hong Kong police arrested Li Zhiying, his two sons and four senior officials of One Media. Li Zhiying was charged with fraud, “collaborating with foreign countries or foreign forces to endanger national security” and “obstructing justice”.
Among them, the prosecution sent the case to the High Court for trial on the crime of “collusion”, which was approved by the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday (15th). Since the high court has unlimited power to sentence, it means that once Li Zhiying is found guilty, he can be sentenced to the maximum life imprisonment.
Before being taken into custody, Li Zhiying told the BBC: “This is just to live my life safely. But if I go to jail, I will live my life meaningfully.”