Hong Kong independent news outlet Citizen News yesterday said that it is to cease operations from today in the face of what it described as a deteriorating media environment in the Chinese-ruled territory and to ensure the safety of its employees.
“Regrettably, the rapid changes in society and worsening environment for media make us unable to achieve our goal fearlessly. Amid this crisis, we have to first make sure everyone on the boat is safe,” Citizen News said in a statement.
Citizen News chief editor Daisy Li (李月華) at a news conference yesterday said that the environment had changed and she did not know what “safe” news was anymore.
Photo: AFP
“If I am no longer confident enough to guide and lead my reporters, I must be responsible,” she said.
The decision to close Citizen News was triggered by last week’s early morning police raid of Stand News, Citizen News chief writer Chris Yeung (楊健興), a former chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, told reporters.
“We could not rule out that ... we might be exposed to some risks,” Yeung said. “Reporting fearlessly means we aren’t afraid of offending the political elite, we criticize the authorities when their policies aren’t right, we don’t shy from covering corporations due to business pressure, but it doesn’t mean we should have to sacrifice our freedom as a price.”
Hundreds of police officers on Wednesday last week raided the Stand News newsroom and two former senior editors of the outlet, including pop star Denise Ho (何韻詩), were charged with conspiring to publish seditious material and denied bail.
The UN, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders condemned the crackdown as an attack on press freedom.
“The government is abusing a draconian colonial law that has not been used for more than FIVE decades to prosecute journalists,” exiled Hong Kong democracy advocate Nathan Law (羅冠聰) wrote on social media.
It followed last year’s enforced closure of the Apple Daily and the arrest of several journalists and executives, as well as a Hong Kong government-led overhaul of the operations of public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong.
Democracy advocates and rights groups say freedoms promised when Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, including freedom of the press, have been increasingly eroded since Beijing imposed a National Security Law in 2020.
In an interview with China News Agency yesterday, Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang (鄧炳強) lauded his bureau’s arrests of “anti-China agitators,” singling out the “cessation” of the Apple Daily as the most impressive.
Citizen News wrote on Facebook that it has no party affiliation and aims to promote Hong Kong’s core values, such as those of freedom, openness, diversity and inclusion.
In a farewell message of thanks to its readers, the outlet said it had launched in 2017 hoping “to serve the public and greater public good.”
“We may not be the fastest or the most productive outlets in town, but our team, with veterans and young journalists, stand united to publish truthful news reporting with depth,” it wrote. “We all love this place deeply. Regrettably, what was ahead of us is not just pouring rains or blowing winds, but hurricanes and tsunamis.”
The Hong Kong Journalists Association said it was deeply saddened by the closures of the outlets.
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative
RSS