GEIS-新闻详情

Hong Kong's Apple Daily to end publication by June 26 following arrests of staff

2021-06-23 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

HONG KONG (REUTERS) - Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai's Next Digital said on Wednesday (June 23) that due to the prevailing circumstances in the city its Apple Daily newspaper will come to an end no later than Saturday.

The end of the popular 26-year-old tabloid, which mixes pro-democracy discourse with racy celebrity gossip and investigations of those in power, has escalated alarm over media freedom and other rights in the Chinese-ruled city.

“Thank you to all readers, subscribers, ad clients and Hong Kongers for 26 years of immense love and support. Here we say goodbye, take care of yourselves,” Apple Daily said in an article on its website. It said the decision was “based on employee safety and manpower considerations”.

Apple Daily also announced that its last print edition will be published on Thursday, while the online edition will be updated for the last time on midnight the same day. The paper's Taiwan operations online will not be affected.

The paper’s publisher, Next Digital, said in a statement the decision to close the newspaper, which employs about 600 journalists, was taken “due to the current circumstances prevailing in Hong Kong”.

Police last week froze assets of companies linked to the newspaper and arrested five executives. On Wednesday, it arrested a columnist on suspicion of conspiring to collude with a foreign country or foreign forces.

Authorities have said dozens of Apple Daily pieces may have violated the security law, the first instance of authorities taking aim at media articles under the legislation.

The paper’s newsroom was raided by 200 police in August last year when owner and staunch Beijing critic Jimmy Lai was arrested on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces, and again by 500 police last week when five other executives were detained.

Pictures of police officers sitting at reporters’ desks and footage of them loading trucks with journalistic materials have sent chills through the media in the former British colony.

Rights groups, media organisations and Western governments have criticised last week’s raid of the Apple Daily newsroom and seizure of journalistic materials on national security grounds.

Police, who typically do not disclose the names of those arrested, said they had arrested a 55-year-old man on the national security charges. A senior executive at Next Digital , which publishes Apple Daily, said a lead writer for editorials and a reporter were arrested, without identifying them. It was unclear why the reporter was arrested.

A police representative said they had no immediate information on a second arrest.

Police officers gather at the headquarters of Apple Daily in Hong Kong on June 17, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that criticism of last week’s raid and arrests at Apple Daily amounted to attempts to “beautify” acts that endangered national security.

Apple Daily has come under increasing pressure since its tycoon owner and staunch Beijing critic, Jimmy Lai, was arrested last year under the contentious legislation. Lai, whose assets have also been frozen under the security law, is already serving a prison sentence for taking part in unauthorised assemblies.

On Monday, an adviser to Lai told Reuters Apple Daily would be forced to shut “in a matter of days”.