BBC Online :
The continued targeting of pro-democracy journalists and publications is sending a chilling message to Hong Kong’s media, with experts warning of a devastating impact on press freedom in the city. The BBC’s Andreas Illmer reports.
On Sunday night, police announced that they had arrested a former senior journalist with the now-shut Apple Daily at the airport as he was trying to leave the city.
Apple Daily closed down after officials arrested its senior leadership under the city’s controversial national security law and froze its assets. Its owner, media mogul Jimmy Lai, was already in jail on a string of charges. News of the arrest came hours after Stand News – popular with pro-democracy supporters – said it would shelve commentary pieces over fears of a crackdown.
Stand News is one of the last openly pro-democratic publications now left in the city. It was among a handful of relatively new online news portals that gained prominence during the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
Hong Kong guarantees its residents press freedom under the terms of an agreement which saw Britain hand the city back to China.
But industry stalwarts say that this is being blatantly violated under the national security law, enacted in June 2020 as a response to years of mounting pro-democracy protests. The controversial law criminalises secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces and carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
