Hong Kong's biggest pro-democracy newspaper to close
Hong Kong's pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper will minimize publishing Thursday, following last week's arrest of five editors and executives and the freezing of $2.3 million in assets under the city's year-old national security law.
The board of directors of parent company Next Media said in a statement Wednesday that the print edition and online edition will cease due to "the existing circumstances prevailing in Hong Kong." The paper later said Thursday's edition will be its last. The silencing of a prominent pro-democracy voice may be the latest sign of China's determination to exert greater control over the semi-autonomous territory after huge protests in 2019 shook the federal government. Since that time, Beijing has imposed a strict national security law to curb dissent and revamped Hong Kong's election laws to keep opposition voices out of the legislature.
The Apple Daily announcement coincided with the start of the city's first trial beneath the national security law, which is being closely watched as a barometer of how strictly the courts will interpret it. The widely expected move to close Apple Daily followed last week's arrests of the five editors and executives, who were detained on suspicion of colluding with foreigners to endanger national security.
Police cited a lot more than 30 articles published by the paper as proof an alleged conspiracy to encourage foreign nations to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China.
The police action against Apple Daily was the very first time the national security law had been used against journalists for something they had published, within an intensifying crackdown by authorities in a city long known because of its freedoms.
