Team News Riveting
Apple Daily that had been courageously campaigning for the freedom of Hong Kong had plunged into serious crises, propelling the newspaper management to consider shutting down the operation.
It was necessitated after the arrest of its senior editors and executives besides freezing of its assets and accounts.
On Thursday morning, Hong Kong police raided the homes of five executives of Apple Daily including editor-in-chief Ryan Law, and arrested them under the national security law, before storming the newsroom with an unprecedented warrant allowing the seizure of journalistic materials.
Police also froze HK$18m (US $2.3m or Rs 17.04 crore) in assets of three companies, Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and AD Internet Limited.
The arrested newspaper executives had been accused of colluding with the foreign or external forces, and were denied bail. Police said the operation and charges related to more than 30 articles published in the paper since 2019 – despite the non-retroactive law only coming into force in 2020 – which allegedly called for foreign sanctions on the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.
On Sunday Apple Daily said the asset freezing had left the company with enough cash for only a few weeks of normal operations, and also affected staff payroll.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong readers have expressed support for Apple Daily as it celebrated its 26th anniversary on Sunday. Many readers purchased 10-10 copies of the newspaper as a mark of backing the organisation. People in fact thronged and lined up in large numbers on Sunday to purchase the newspaper.
“Hongkongers will support (Apple Daily), and are sincerely thankful that it will continue to report the truth despite authoritarian oppression,” one of the readers said. “Buying copies of Apple Daily is not a crime, and the public will not stop just because of intimidation from the government.”
At a nearby Mong Kok restaurant, a reader bought 20 copies of Apple Daily and distributed it for free. “As a Hongkonger, I must definitely support Apple Daily,” he said, adding that the news organization’s plight was a sign of how Hong Kong was changing.
A Newsstand owner said all copies of Apple Daily were sold out and the stocked ones would also fly off the shelves.
Another said she hoped that Apple Daily could hold on for as long as it could. “This is a sign of the Hong Kong spirit,” she said.
