Beijing's closure of Apple Daily is an all-out assault on press freedom in Hong Kong
Today, Apple Daily, the largest Chinese-language pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong has announced that it will be shutting its doors this week as a result of the National Security Law.
The decision by the newspaper follows the arrest of its owner Jimmy Lai under the National Security Law, two separate police raids on the newspaper, the recent arrest of five Apple Daily executives including the editor, and the freezing of the paper’s accounts under the draconian law.
Despite the paper having 600,000 paid subscribers and $500 million in the bank which would allow it to continue to print for at least another 18 months, the Hong Kong Police has refused to unfreeze the paper’s accounts citing national security concerns.
In a sign that the National Security Law will increasingly target journalists, the Hong Kong Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, in a press conference yesterday refused to outline how journalists could avoid breaching the draconian law. While the Secretary of Security John Lee Ka-chiu has stated that other journalists should keep their distance from the work of Apple Daily newspaper.
Commenting on the closing of Apple Daily, Benedict Rogers, Hong Kong Watch’s Chief Executive, said:
“Today Beijing has launched an all-out assault on press freedom in Hong Kong by finally shutting the largest pro-democracy newspaper in the city. Apple Daily has long been a thorn in the side of the Chinese Communist Party by daring to criticise Carrie Lam and Xi Jinping in a city that day by day declines further into authoritarian rule.
The journalists at the paper continued to report and deliver the news without fear or favour in the face of advertisement boycotts orchestrated by Beijing, the arrest of the newspaper’s owner and founder Jimmy Lai, the arrest of the newspaper’s executives and journalists, and a number of raids by the Hong Kong Police.
In the end it was the decision by the Chinese Government to freeze the paper’s assets that has forced its closure, signalling that Hong Kong is no longer a city where individuals can move their money freely.
We urge the international community to respond to this assault on the free press in Hong Kong through the swift introduction of Magnitsky sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials, the US Congress to pass the Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act, the EU to adopt a lifeboat scheme for Hong Kongers, and the UK Government to do more to live up to its legal, historic, and moral obligation to the city and those journalists in jail who carry British citizenship.”