• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Democracy at Risk Media Freedom

Hong Kong Police Raid Pro-Democracy Newspaper Apple Daily, Arrest Five

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
06/17/21
in Media Freedom, World
Hong Kong police raid

Hong Kong police arrest Chief Operations Officer Chow Tat Kuen (front 2nd R) at the Apple Daily newspaper offices, June 17, 2021. Photo: Anthony Wallace/ AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Hong Kong police arrested the chief editor and four executives of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily on Thursday, raiding its newsroom for a second time in the latest blow to the outspoken tabloid.

The paper and its jailed owner Jimmy Lai have long been a thorn in Beijing’s side with unapologetic support for the financial hub’s pro-democracy movement and scathing criticism of China’s authoritarian leaders.

More than 500 officers were involved in the dawn operation which authorities said was sparked by articles Apple Daily had published “appealing for sanctions” against Hong Kong and China’s leaders.

It is the first time the content of media reporting has sparked arrests under the new security law. 

The union representing Apple Daily‘s journalists described the operation as a “wanton violation of press freedom” that “displayed how much police power has inflated under the national security law”.

Officials said the five executives were arrested for collusion with a foreign country or external elements “to endanger national security”.

“They have overall responsibility for the content, style and principles of news reporting,” senior superintendent Steve Li told reporters. 

Authorities also confirmed HK$18 million (US$2.3m) in Apple Daily assets had also been frozen under the security law, the first time a seizure order has been made directly against a Hong Kong media company, rather than an individual.

Raid broadcast live

Hong Kong is historically a major international media hub although its press freedom ranking has slipped dramatically in recent years.

Secretary for Security John Lee declined to say which articles breached the security law or whether those who shared the articles online, bought Apple Daily or its shares, might be at risk. 

“Everyone must decide for themselves,” he told reporters after the arrests were made.

He rejected suggestions the operation was an assault on the media.

“Our actions are not targeting press freedom or journalistic work,” he said. “We target conspiracies that threaten national security. We target perpetrators who would use journalistic work as a tool to engage in acts that endanger national security.”

Apple Daily broadcast live footage of the raid showing officers searching the newsroom and looking through journalists’ computer consoles. 

“Police are restricting us from using quite a lot of our equipment,” an unnamed reporter said in the broadcast.

“But we can still keep this live camera on and our website will keep updating.”

Among those arrested were chief editor Ryan Law and CEO Cheung Kim-hung who were both led into the building with their hands fastened behind their backs.

Hong Kong’s stock exchange said trading in shares of Next Digital — the publisher of the newspaper — had been halted.

The security law introduced last June is the speartip of a sweeping crackdown on Beijing’s critics in Hong Kong since 2019’s huge democracy protests.

It has criminalized much dissent, given China jurisdiction over some cases and awarded authorities a suite of powerful new investigation powers.

Those convicted of a national security crime face up to life in prison and the majority are denied bail after arrest.

Thursday’s raid was the second on Apple Daily in less than a year.

The tabloid’s billionaire owner Lai, 73, was charged with collusion after hundreds of officers searched the paper’s newsroom last August.

He is currently serving multiple jail sentences for attending various protests.

Beijing has made no secret of its desire to see the paper’s voice tamed, with state media routinely describing Lai as a “traitor” and a “black hand” and senior communist party officials already declaring him guilty.

Asset seizures

Last month, police used the national security law to freeze Lai’s bank accounts and his majority shares in Next Digital.

Until Thursday’s raid, authorities had left the company’s assets alone. It is unclear whether Apple Daily will now be able to pay its staff.

“We will try all our best to publish newspapers for tomorrow,” executive chief editor Lam Man-chung, who was not among those arrested, told AFP.

China says the law was needed to return stability to the international financial hub.

Critics, including many Western nations, say it has been the final nail in the coffin for the “One Country, Two Systems” promise that Hong Kong could maintain certain liberties after its 1997 handover to China by the British.

More than 100 people have been arrested under the security law, many of them the city’s best-known democracy activists. Others have fled overseas.

Speaking with AFP last month, chief editor Law admitted the paper was in “crisis” since Lai’s jailing but said his reporters were determined to press on with publishing.

At a recent meeting, staff asked Law what they should do if the police came back to arrest him.

“Broadcast it live,” he said.

Jimmy Lai Among Eight More Hong Kong Democracy Activists Jailed
ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Hong Kong media outlet
Media Freedom

Third Hong Kong Media Company Shutters as Media Fears Grow

by Staff Writer
January 3, 2022
Hong Kong
Democracy at Risk

Hong Kong Launches China-Style Tracking App for Mainland Travel

by Staff Writer
December 2, 2021
Hong Kong
Democracy at Risk

Hong Kong to Create More National Security Offences: Official

by Staff Writer
September 20, 2021
Hong Kong
World

Hong Kong Saw Net Outflow of 90,000 Residents Over the Last Year

by Staff Writer
August 12, 2021
Chow Hang-tung
Democracy at Risk

Rights Lawyer Calls Hong Kong ‘City of Fear’ as Bail Denied

by Staff Writer
July 2, 2021
Jimmy Lai
Media Freedom

Jimmy Lai Among Eight More Hong Kong Democracy Activists Jailed

by Staff Writer
May 28, 2021
Next Post
Senior Sales Staff Mark Warner shows a bump stock installed on an AR-15 rifle at Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Virgina, on October 6, 2017.

No, Judge, an AR-15 Is Not a Swiss Army Knife

Migrant boat

80 Migrants Rescued in English Channel Trying to Reach UK

Recommended

Damage from a series of powerful storms and at least one tornado is seen on March 25, 2023, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi

After Tornado Kills 25, Mississippi Faces More Extreme Weather

March 26, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
participants of an artificial intelligence conference

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

March 19, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

March 10, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

March 8, 2023

Opinion

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post