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.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘NOT SUBORDINATE’: Only Taiwanese can decide the nation’s future, and people preserving their democratic way of life is not a provocation, President William Lai said Taiwan does not want China’s “one country, two systems,” and must uphold its freedom and democracy as well as resolve to defend itself, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, rejecting Beijing’s latest bid to bring the country under Chinese control. The president made the remarks while attending a commissioning ceremony for Taiwan’s first battalion of M1A2T Abrams tanks in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口). The tanks are made by General Dynamics, a major US defense contractor. China this week said it “absolutely will not” rule out using force over Taiwan, striking a much tougher tone than a series of articles in state media
RSS