A shadow of fear hangs over Hong Kong’s outspoken and staunchly pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, with its billionaire owner Jimmy Lai (黎智英) now jailed and many reporters asking themselves: “Are we next?”
Each day, tomorrow’s date is hung up on the wall of the bustling newsroom, a constant reminder of the need to get the next edition out, but there are growing signs a time could come when the 26-year-old newspaper has no tomorrow in a territory that once marketed itself as a regional bastion of the free press.
“I am facing the greatest crisis since I took up the post over three years ago,” Apple Daily editor-in-chief Ryan Law (羅偉光) said, just days before authorities used the National Security Law to freeze Lai’s assets, including his shares in the company.
Photo: AFP
On a table in Law’s office sat five recent resignation letters from staff, a vivid illustration of the worries coursing through the newsroom, but Law, an Apple Daily veteran of two decades, remained defiant — and devoted to journalism, despite the threat.
“Some colleagues asked if Apple will eventually close shop when the CEO or I am arrested,” Law said. “I said: ‘Apple is still here even after Mr Lai’s arrest.’”
As China’s crackdown gathered pace in the wake of 2019’s huge and often violent democracy protests, mainland authorities made no secret of their desire to see the Apple Daily — and its Next Digital parent group — shuttered.
The tabloid, founded by Lai in 1995, has unapologetically backed Hong Kong’s long and fruitless democracy campaign, and can be withering in its criticism of both Beijing and Hong Kong’s leaders.
Lai has long been branded a “traitor” and a “black hand” by Chinese state media, and declared guilty by senior Chinese Communist Party leaders.
Prosecutions have come thick and fast for Lai over the past year.
He is serving a 14-month prison sentence for attending two protests in 2019, and faces two more ongoing prosecutions linked to other rallies, but the most serious charge is “colluding with foreign forces” for allegedly campaigning for international sanctions.
Lai faces up to life in jail if convicted and it was that charge that enabled authorities to seize his assets.
In an interview last year, Lai was frank that his own checkbook kept the Apple Daily going.
Although it remains the territory’s most popular newspaper, like most printed press its circulation has cratered, from about 400,000 at its peak in the 1990s to just 80,000.
Any company that relies on the Chinese market has long avoided advertising with the paper.
Since Lai’s assets were frozen, the Apple Daily has said that it might have only nine to 10 months of money in the bank.
Zoe, a reporter who has been at the Apple Daily for more than five years, described a constant weight pressing down on her.
“The morale is rather bad,” she said, asking to use a pseudonym to speak freely. “It feels like something is approaching us... I worry that some day soon I may not be able to work in the press.”
Hong Kong remains a major regional press headquarters, hosting the offices of many international media companies, but the territory has been sliding down press freedom rankings since its 1997 return to China.
The once raucous local media scene has been steadily tamed to be less critical of Beijing.
The Apple Daily is the exception, Zoe said.
“I have worked in a number of newsrooms and Apple is the freest I have encountered so far,” she said.
She considered quitting, but rejected the idea.
“I still want to work here because such a free space is really precious for a reporter,” she said. “I can’t simply leave it behind when it’s struggling.”
Lai’s arrest last year was a watershed moment for the Apple Daily reporters.
The same day, more than 200 police officers raided the newsroom to search for evidence.
The first thing Law did was to tell his reporters to broadcast the raid live on Facebook.
“I was thinking, first and foremost, we must report this news because only we can do it,” Law said.
At a recent town hall meeting, staff asked Law what they should do if the police arrested him.
“Broadcast it live,” was his reply.
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