Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn.
Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.”
Photo: Reuters
“With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in Hong Kong,” she said. “His commitment reminds us that press freedom is never a given — it must be constantly defended. With the DW freedom of speech award, we honor his indispensable dedication to democratic values.”
Lai, a British citizen, was one of Hong Kong’s most prominent and vocal pro-democracy advocates before his imprisonment. He provided financial backing to democratic parties and politicians, and took part in mass protests against Beijing’s rule in 2019 and 2020.
Authorities arrested Lai in 2020, accusing him of using the Apple Daily and his political connections to lobby for foreign governments to impose sanctions on China and Hong Kong.
A Hong Kong court sentenced him to 20 years in prison in February on charges that include “conspiracy to collaborate with foreign forces” and publishing “seditious material.” He was convicted under the city’s draconian national security law, imposed by the Chinese Communist Party in 2020.
The ruling was condemned as politically motivated by rights groups and the British government, with Human Rights Watch warning that the length of his sentence amounted to “effectively a death sentence.”
Lai’s conviction was the culmination of a years-long saga that critics said represents Hong Kong’s transformation from a largely free city after its return to China in 1997 —following more than 150 years of British rule —to one where dissent is fiercely suppressed.
Beijing said the imposition of the law was necessary to restore stability to the city.
Lai, who was born in southern China in 1947 and fled to Hong Kong in 1960, said he owed “everything to the people of Hong Kong” and that a prison term would be “redemption” for the “wonderful life” the territory had given him.
Additional reporting from Yu-chen Li
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS