Hong Kong: under pressure from China, pro-democracy newspaper ‘Apple Daily’ could close in a few days

In the 26 years since its inception, the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily He has consistently criticized the Chinese Communist Party or supported the pro-democracy movement. He survived multiple raids, boycott campaigns and arrests of its founder, Jimmy Lai, by virtue of the new and draconian national security law.

But now, with its assets frozen by the Hong Kong government, the Apple Daily in Chinese could cease its exchanges on Friday, according to an internal note seen by The Washington Post. Communication means currently cannot pay staff or suppliers and will be forced to close if the government refuses to release its funds, closing of the biggest newspaper Independent Of the territory.

“It’s more than surreal“, He said Ed chin, mutual fund manager and columnist for the Apple Daily since a long time. “These so-called national security law enforcers have lost their minds. They are destroying Hong Kong’s autonomy, ”he added.

The fate of Apple Daily and its editor, directors and founder, Jimmy Lai –all arrested under the National Security Act and risk life imprisonment – is emblematic of the amazing changes that take place in Hong Kong. The freedoms guaranteed by the Hong Kong Basic Law, like the expression and the press, have become secondary to Beijing’s wishes, that he redraws the formerly autonomous territory and uses the new law to force his submission.

Last August, Jimmy Lai, the media mogul who founded the Apple Daily, he was one of the first arrested under the National Security Act, barely a month after its approval. The law criminalizes a wide range of crimes, such as subversion of state power and collusion with foreign forces, punishable by penalties of up to life imprisonment. Lai, 73, has been in detention since December and he was denied bail, as were dozens of people charged under the Security Act. Police also raided Lai’s newsroom at the time of his arrest in August.

Last Thursday, in an operation where some 500 agents, the police raided the newsroom a second time and detained five executives of the Apple Daily under the National Security Act, including three of its main drafters. Editor-in-chief Ryan Law and CEO Cheung Kim-hung have been accused of colluding with foreign powers to endanger Hong Kong and denied bail.

Police claim dozens of articles from Apple Daily they asked western sanctions against Hong Kong and China, and therefore They broke the law, but he did not specify which articles or name them.

Officers said the wording of Apple Daily as a crime scene, journalists were denied access during the raid and they issued an order which allowed them to seize “journalistic material”. They searched the files and journalists’ notes and took about 40 computer devices. Hong Kong Security Secretary John Lee also ordered the freezing of the assets of Apple Daily and related companies, and prohibits banks from doing business with them.

Marc Simon, one of Lai’s top advisers, said the asset freeze made it impossible for Next Digital, the publisher of Apple Daily, pay your staff or suppliers, thus forcing the newspaper to close, even though it still has liquidity in its banks.

“They made the bank accounts inoperative“he said in statements to The post office. “We cannot touch our bank accounts, [y] people he can’t put money in our accounts.

Directors held a board meeting on Monday to discuss the fate of the publication in light of the asset freeze, and they agreed to send a letter to the Hong Kong Security Bureau asking for the funds to be released. If they don’t, according to the internal memo, the business will not be able to operate and the Saturday newspaper will be the last.

Considering the situation, staff can resign immediately if they wish, the note adds.

“Management hopes staff can stay until the end, but with the unpredictable risks that lie ahead, whether everyone decides to stay or go alone”The note read. “Thank you for being with us all these years.”

Human rights groups and media watchdogs have condemned the treatment of Apple Daily and the arrests of its senior executives. Amnesty International described the arrests as “brazen attack on press freedom“, While the Hong Kong Journalists Association issued a statement in which he lambasted the government for “instrumentalize“The security law to attack information. Detentions, raids and confiscation of property have followed a pattern since the approval of the Security Law, in which the media, and the public broadcaster in particular, were attacked and gagged, as a critical coverage space.

Security Secretary Lee at a press conference following the raids and arrests last Thursday, described the directors of the Apple Daily inmate of “the criminals“And warned the rest of the media industry that”they will cut the bridges“with them. The actions, he said, were not “Addressed to the press” but to those “Who exploit journalism as a tool to threaten national security.”

“We have to differentiate what these suspects did from normal journalistic workLee said.

Even so, the people of Hong Kong queued up to buy newspaper copies after the raid, which were sold in stores across town. Apple Daily more than 600,000 the subscribers pay, according to Simon, Lai’s best advisor.

“We’re probably Hong Kong’s biggest media outlet, by most estimatesSimon said in an interview with the CNN. “If you’re a small media outlet, if you’re a blogger … God help you if you are trapped in Hong Kong’s national security apparatus”.

* Shibani Mahtani is the Washington Post’s bureau chief for Southeast Asia, covering countries such as the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia. He joined the Post’s outdoor newsroom in 2018 after seven years as the Wall Street Journal correspondent in Southeast Asia and then in Chicago, where he covered the Midwest.

* Theodora Yu is a Hong Kong reporter for the Washington Post’s Hong Kong office. He joined The Post in 2020.

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