Hong Kongers snap up final edition of Apple Daily newspaper
24 June, 2021
Hong Kongers queued Thursday (Jun 24) for the ultimate edition of the city's beloved pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily after it had been forced to close under a sweeping new national security law, ending a 26-year run of taking on China's authoritarian leaders.
The sudden death of the popular newspaper may be the latest blow to Hong Kong's freedoms and deepens unease over if the international finance centre can remain a media hub as China seeks to stamp out dissent.
A guy purchases a copy of the Apple Daily newspaper's final edition in Hong Kong's Central district on Jun 24, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Bertha Wang)
In the working-class district of Mongkok, hundreds queued through the early hours of Thursday to obtain hands on the ultimate edition, some chanting "Apple Daily we will meet again!"
The swansong front page featured the paper's own journalists waving goodbye to crowds outside its headquarters.
"It is rather shocking," a 30-year-old woman, who was in the queue and gave her first name as Candy, told AFP.
"Within a fortnight, authorities might use this national security law to dismantle a listed company."
A few hours later, vendors were performing a roaring trade with commuters in Central, the financial heart of the city.
"It is all so sudden," a student, who gave his first name as Tim, told AFP.
"I think Hong Kong has entered a dark age."
ASSET FREEZE
Hong Kong's most popular tabloid had always been a thorn in Beijing's side, with unapologetic support for the city's pro-democracy movement and caustic criticism of China's authoritarian leaders.
Those same leaders used a fresh security law to bring about its rapid demise.
Owner Jimmy Lai, currently in jail for attending democracy protests, was among the first to be charged under the law following its imposition last year.
However the final chapter was written over the last week when authorities deployed the security law to raid the newsroom, arrest senior executives and freeze its assets.
That last move crippled the paper's ability to conduct business or pay staff and the news headlines group decided Thursday's newspaper - a run of one million copies in a city of 7.5 million - would be its last.
Overnight it took down its website, Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Some 1,000 people, including 700 journalists, are actually out of work.
"Hong Kongers lost a media organisation that dared to speak up and insist upon defending the reality," eight local journalist associations said in a joint statement, because they called on colleagues to clothe themselves in black on Thursday.
FORBIDDEN OPINIONS
China imposed its security law on Hong Kong this past year after metropolis was convulsed by huge and frequently violent democracy protests in 2019.
The prosecution of Apple Daily was sparked by articles and columns that allegedly supported international sanctions against China, a view now deemed illegal.
Workers of Apple Daily and its publisher Next Digital pose with the ultimate edition of Apple Daily at its headquarters in Hong Kong on June 24, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu)
Lai, chief editor Ryan Law and CEO Cheung Kim-hung have all been charged with colluding with foreign forces to undermine China's national security and remanded into custody.
On Wednesday, Yeung Ching-kee, among the paper's top columnists, was arrested on a single charge.
Your choice to freeze Apple Daily's assets also laid bare the sweeping powers now at the disposal of authorities to pursue any company deemed to become a national security threat.
Multiple international media companies have regional headquarters in Hong Kong, drawn to the business-friendly regulations and free speech provisions written into the city's mini-constitution.
But many local and international outlets are questioning whether they have another there.
FIRST TRIAL
Hong Kong has plunged down an twelve-monthly press freedom ranking by Reporters Without Borders, from 18th place in 2002 to 80th this season. Mainland China languishes at 177th out of 180, above only Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
China and Hong Kong's authorities have hailed the security law for successfully restoring stability following the 2019 demonstrations and said media outlets must not "subvert" the government.
Authorities initially said the law would only target "a little minority".
Nonetheless it has radically transformed the political and legal landscape of a city that China promised can keep key liberties and autonomy following its 1997 return by Britain.
On Wednesday, the first trial under the new law got under way for a guy accused of riding a motorbike into cops.
His trial isn't being heard by a jury, a significant departure from Hong Kong's common law traditions.
His case is unusual because he's the only Hong Konger up to now charged beneath the security law with an explicitly violent act.
More than 60 people have been charged beneath the law, including a few of the city's best-known democracy activists, but their offences are linked to political views or speech that authorities have declared illegal.
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