Hong Kong pro-democracy paper Apple Daily to print last edition

Hong Kong’s most vocal pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily said it will print its last edition on Thursday after a stormy year in which it was raided by police and its tycoon owner and other staff were arrested under a new national security law.

The closure of the popular tabloid, which mixes pro-democracy views with celebrity gossip and investigations of those in power, marks the end of an era for media freedom in the Chinese-ruled city, critics say.

“Thank you to all readers, subscribers, ad clients and Hong Kongers for 26 years of immense love and support. Here we say goodbye, take care of yourselves,” Apple Daily said in an online article.

Apple Daily’s support for democratic rights and freedoms has made it a thorn in Beijing’s side since owner Jimmy Lai, a self-made tycoon who was smuggled from mainland China into Hong Kong on a fishing boat at the age of 12, started it in 1995.

It shook up the region’s Chinese-language media landscape and became a champion of democracy on the margins of Communist China. Its demise leaves only a handful of small online outlets on that side of politics, including Stand News and Citizen News.

Staff unions at Citizen News and six other media groups said they would wear black on Thursday in protest at what they described as “the government’s blow against freedom of the press”. Management at Citizen News and Stand News could not be reached for comment outside of office hours.
HONG KONG, (AFP) 
June 23, 2021