Hong Kong democracy paper defiant as executives charged under security law
HONG KONG, China -- Hong Kong's pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper hit the stands Friday a day after police raided its newsroom, with an extra-large print run and a characteristic message of defiance emblazoned on its front that read: "We must press on."
The bold stance came as police formally charged two of the newspaper's executives under a sweeping new security law that cracks down on dissent in the international business and media hub.
The tabloid and its jailed owner Jimmy Lai have long been a thorn in Beijing's side with unapologetic support for the city's pro-democracy movement and scathing criticism of China's authoritarian leaders.
Those same leaders are now determined to see it silenced.
More than 500 police officers raided the paper's newsroom on Thursday in an operation that authorities said was sparked by articles that allegedly appealed for sanctions against China.
It was the first time the political views and opinions published in Hong Kong media outlets triggered the broadly-worded national security law.
Five executives, including chief editor Ryan Law and CEO Cheung Kim-hung, were detained on charges of colluding with foreign forces to undermine China's national security.
Both Law and Cheung were charged on Friday.
Most of those charged under the law are denied bail and will spend months behind bars before going to trial.
'All sold out'
Staff returned to a newsroom gutted of many computers and hard drives that had been carted away in police evidence bags.
But they pushed on throughout the night to get the next day's edition out, as they have for the last 26 years.
This time, they were surrounded by a gaggle of reporters from rival outlets documenting the seemingly inexorable decline of media freedoms in their city, an international media hub.
Editors settled on a simple front page featuring pictures of the five arrested executives with a headline that detailed the raid.
But below the fold, in a bold yellow font, they printed "We must press on", words the paper said Cheung told staff as he was led away by police in handcuffs.
The company opted for a print run of 500,000 copies -- far beyond its current daily circulation of around 80,000 -- hoping Hong Kongers might snap up the historic edition.
In the working-class district of Mongkok, dozens of residents queued in the early morning hours for the first edition.
"Usually we sell around 60 copies but tonight, we just sold 1,800," the owner of one newsstand, who did not give his name, told AFP. "Now it is all sold out."
A 40-year-old product developer, who gave only her first name Polly, said she bought ten copies.
"For many years we enjoyed the freedom of press and we were able to say anything," she told AFP.
"But just within one year it's all different, it has deteriorated so much and everything is happening so quickly," she added.
Another customer, 45-year-old Steven Chow, snapped up three copies.
"There is no perfect media, but it (Apple Daily) is a unique voice in Hong Kong," he said.
"You may not like it, but I think you need to let them have their voice and survive, it is important."
Future unclear
It is not clear how long Apple Daily can survive.
Its wealthy owner Lai, 73, is currently serving multiple sentences for his involvement in democracy rallies in 2019.
He has also been charged under the national security law and has had his Hong Kong assets frozen by authorities.
Authorities froze a further HK$18 million (US$2.3 million) in Apple Daily's company assets on Thursday.
Before the latest freeze, Apple Daily said it had enough cash to keep going for the rest of the year.
Mark Simon, an aide to Lai who lives overseas, said the paper would have difficulty paying its staff of about 700.
"We're having an incredibly tough time," he told the New York Times.
"I don't know what's going to happen. I think they're going to keep coming and coming."
Millions march in Hong Kong in a powerful rebuke of an extradition law feared to expose them to China's capricious justice system.
Hong Kong national security police on Thursday detained four people, including the brother of prominent activist Dennis Kwok, one of eight fugitives with bounties on their heads for allegedly breaching national security.
The city's national security department "took in two men and two women from various districts in Hong Kong and Kowloon for investigation," a police source told AFP.
Among the four was the elder brother of former democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok, who is currently in the United States.
"(Kwok's elder brother) is now under investigation in the Western District police station," the source said.
Three others, "two women and a man", were taken in Tuesday by the national security department, authorities told AFP earlier Thursday.
AFP has requested comment from police on the most recent detentions. — AFP
Three family members of exiled democracy activist Nathan Law have been taken in for questioning on Tuesday, days after authorities issued a bounty on him and seven others accused of breaching the city's national security law.
Police officers from the national security department brought in Law's parents and elder brother without formally arresting them, a police source confirmed to AFP.
"It's understood that officers from the NSD took three people -- Nathan Law's parents and elder brother -- in for questioning," they said.
"So far, no arrest has been made." — AFP
The United States condemns Hong Kong authorities for issuing bounties linked to democracy activists based abroad, saying the move sets a dangerous precedent that could threaten human rights.
Hong Kong police offered bounties of HK$1 million (about $127,600) for information leading to the capture of eight prominent dissidents who live abroad and are wanted for national security crimes.
"The United States condemns the Hong Kong Police Force's issuance of an international bounty" against the eight activists, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says in a statement.
"The extraterritorial application of the Beijing-imposed National Security Law is a dangerous precedent that threatens the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people all over the world," he adds, saying China is engaging in "transnational repression efforts."
"We call on the Hong Kong government to immediately withdraw this bounty, respect other countries' sovereignty, and stop the international assertion of the National Security Law imposed by Beijing." — AFP
Hong Kong's top court has quashed the conviction of a journalist in relation to her investigation into an attack on democracy supporters by government loyalists in 2019.
It was a rare victory for the press industry in a city where two major independent news outlets have been forced to shut down since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020.
"Happy -- I could not think of another word that can describe my mood right now," veteran journalist Bao Choy said outside the Court of Final Appeal after the judgement was handed down.
"I think this kind of happiness belongs to everyone in society." — AFP
Hong Kong police detained Alexandra Wong, a prominent democracy activist better known as "Grandma Wong" on Sunday, the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, AFP reporters said.
Wong was carrying flowers in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay shopping district, an area that for years was the site of June 4, 1989, commemorations, before authorities escorted her to a police van. AFP reporters saw a total of six people bundled into police vehicles. — AFP
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