The final edition of Hong Kong’s last remaining pro-democracy newspaper sold out within hours yesterday, as readers scooped up all 1 million copies of the Apple Daily, whose closure was yet another sign of China’s tightening grip on the territory.
People lined up early in the morning to buy the paper, which in the past few years has become an increasingly outspoken critic of Chinese and Hong Kong authorities’ efforts to limit freedoms in the territory. The paper was gone from newsstands by 8:30am.
The swansong front page featured the paper’s own journalists waving goodbye to crowds outside its headquarters.
Photo: AFP
“Apple Daily is dead,” deputy chief editor Chan Pui-man (陳沛敏), who was arrested last week on a national security charge, wrote in a farewell letter to readers.
“Press freedom became the victim of tyranny,” he added.
The newspaper said it was forced to cease operations after police froze US$2.3 million of its assets, searched its office and arrested five top editors and executives last week, accusing them of foreign collusion to endanger national security.
Photo: Bloomberg
“This is our last day, and last edition. Does this reflect the reality that Hong Kong has started to lose its press freedom and freedom of speech?” an Apple Daily graphic designer, Dickson Ng, asked. “Why does it have to end up like this?”
The paper printed 1 million copies for its final edition — up from the usual 80,000. While pro-democracy media outlets still exist online, it was the only print newspaper of its kind left in Hong Kong.
In the working-class district of Mongkok, hundreds lined up through the early hours of the morning to get their hands on the final edition, some chanting: “Apple Daily we will meet again.”
“It’s very shocking,” said a 30-year-old woman, who was in the line and gave her first name as Candy. “Within two weeks, authorities could use this National Security Law to dismantle a listed company.”
On Wednesday night, more than 100 people stood outside Apple Daily’s office building in the rain to show their support, taking photographs and shouting words of encouragement.
Inside the building, Chan told staff who gathered around the newsroom to big applause: “You’ve done a great job, everyone.”
In Taipei, the Mainland Affairs Council said the paper’s demise was “sounding the death knell” for media freedom in Hong Kong.
“This shows the international community that the Chinese Communist Party, in its exercise of totalitarian political power, will stop at nothing to use extreme means to wipe out dissenting opinions,” it said in an e-mailed statement. “Humankind’s quest for freedom, democracy and other universal values will not be lost to history, but history will remember the ugly face of the power behind the suppression of freedom.”
Apple Daily’s closure marks a “dark day for press freedom in Hong Kong,” said Thomas Kellogg, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law.
“Without Apple Daily, Hong Kong is less free than it was a week ago. Apple Daily was an important voice, and it seems unlikely that any other media outlet will be able to fill its shoes, given growing restrictions on free speech and freedom of the press,” he said.
The Taiwanese edition of the Apple Daily, which is now only available online, assured readers that its operations would continue.
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