Apple Daily has confirmed its final closure after pressure from Chinese regime

Hong Kong Daily Apple Daily, intervened by the authorities of the Chinese Communist regime, will close its operations so it will cease to be published “at the latest” on Saturday, the newspaper’s board of directors confirmed on Wednesday, after police froze their accounts and placed staff under arrest, using a new national security law.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper will print its latest edition this weekend.

Due to the current circumstances in Hong Kong, Apple Daily in its print form will end no later than the last issue on Saturday, June 26, 2021 and the digital version will no longer be available no later than 11:59 a.m. on Saturday June 26, 2021 “the newspaper’s board said in a brief statement.

“The company thanks our readers for their loyal support and our journalists, contributors and advertisers for their commitment over the past 26 years.”, the executive council said in a statement released after the arrest of a media columnist.

Yes indeed, The digital edition of the newspaper will also not be accessible from Saturday., after the English section, the finance section and the Twitter account ceased to function this week, according to the news portal Hong Kong Free Press.

The decision was announced hours after the arrest of Tseung Kwan O, columnist for the Apple Daily, owned by media mogul Jimmy Lai, who is currently in prison.

The detainee is the main columnist for the media, in which he signed under the name Li Ping, suspected according to the authorities of “conspiracy to conspire with foreign countries or foreign forces to endanger national security”, as local media report.

For him, Apple Daily asked its employees not to return to the newsroom, while those who were in the facilities on Wednesday were told to vacate the premises, according to Hong Kong Free Press.

The newspaper, one of the biggest circulation in Hong Kong, had already announced this week that it could make the decision to stop its publication, days after authorities in the former British colony froze $ 18 million. Hong Kong man (US $ 2.2 million) from his holdings after accusing the outlet of violating national security law.

Regime authorities claim that the national security lawsuits launched by Apple Daily were sparked by articles and columns written over the past year and allegedly supporting international sanctions against China., an opinion which is now considered illegal.

It is the first time that political opinions and opinions published by a Hong Kong media, a regional international press center, have activated the security law.

More than 500 police officers raided the newspaper’s newsroom last Thursday, taking computers and laptops.

In recent days, in addition to this blockade, the arrest of some media directors belonging to Lai, such as the editor-in-chief Apple Daily, Ryan Law. Last Friday, the newspaper reached a circulation of 500,000 copies with an eight-page special on arrests and raids, compared to 80,000 copies sold the day before.

Police accused the press of “sensationalism” and “undermining national security”, citing as examples some thirty articles from Apple Daily, the majority of comments or opinion pieces, in which sanctions against Hong Kong and China were requested.

China detained more than 10,000 people in Hong Kong amid protests against communist rule in 2019. The unrest led to a criticized national security law passed in June 2020 by the Chinese parliament. Among those arrested is Lai, who is serving a prison term for his participation in these protests and other crimes.

(With AFP and Europa Press information)

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