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Hong Kong Arrests Media Executives at Pro-Democracy Newspaper Apple Daily
Posted
June 17, 2021
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2:05Now PlayingChina took another step toward extinguishing any form of dissent in Hong Kong, hailing police in the city for arresting top editors of a pro-democracy newspaper and warning journalists not to write articles that challenge Beijing.
On Thursday morning, roughly 500 police officers descended on the headquarters of the popular Apple Daily newspaper for the second time in 12 months after accusing its leaders of violating a national security law imposed last year. They arrested three top editors and two senior executives of the tabloid owned by Next Digital founder and democracy activist Jimmy Lai, a fierce critic of Beijing who is currently serving more than year in prison for attending unauthorized protests.
“Freedom of the press is not a ‘shield’ for illegal activities,” the Chinese government’s Liaison Office said in a statement. “No matter what kind of professional status and background they have, no matter what kind of support they have behind them, anyone who violates the Hong Kong National Security Law and relevant laws will be severely punished by the law.”
The unprecedented move to arrest senior editors at a major newspaper -- and warn other journalists to watch what they write -- has rattled a city that has seen Beijing swiftly erode basic freedoms in the former British colony since historic street protests in 2019. Police haven’t disclosed details about the articles in question, leading to fears that Beijing will use the vaguely worded national security law to potentially throw journalists in jail for any critical reporting.
In the raid on Apple Daily, police barred journalists from accessing their desks and declared the right to seize computers and other devices in a search of the premises. The police officers present at Apple Daily Thursday were more than double the number that searched the newspaper’s headquarters back in August, and this time they prevented reporters from live-streaming the sweep of their offices.
Mark Simon, a top adviser to Lai, said police were falsely labeling the paper’s top three editors as company directors to mask the fact that authorities were now using the security law to arrest journalists.
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