Press freedoms in Hong Kong “hanging on by a thread”

A pro-Democracy newspaper has been raided again, and the editorial team warns press freedoms in Hong Kong are under threat like never before.

Nine months after the Apple Daily newsroom was raided, hundreds of officers again swept the office and arrested five top executives under national security charges.

The paper and its jailed owner Jimmy Lai have long been a thorn in Beijing’s side with unapologetic support for the financial hub’s pro-democracy movement.

Five hundred police sifted through reporters computers and notebooks.

Hong Kong police said 500 officers raided the anti-government tabloid’s Tseung Kwan O office,, going through reporters’ documents and notes.

Apple Daily streamed the event live online.

Dawn operation

More than 500 officers conducted a dawn operation which authorities said was sparked by articles Apple Daily had published “appealing for sanctions” against Hong Kong and China’s leaders.

Pictures published by Apple Daily showed police sitting at reporters’ desks and using their computers.

A person streaming a live feed for Apple Daily’s Facebook page said reporters were prevented from accessing certain floors or getting their equipment or notebooks.

In a message to readers, Apple Daily warned Hong Kong’s press freedoms are “hanging by a thread”.

Police say at least 30 articles published in 2019 may have breached national security by calling for foreign sanctions against the Hong Kong government.

This is the first time where authorities said news articles could potentially violate the security law.

Supt Li, who heads the police force’s national security department, said Secretary for Security John Lee had issued  an order to freeze HK$18 million worth of assets.

After the raid, reporters returned to a semi-gutted newsroom with the paper saying 38 computers were taken away.

Five executives of Apple Daily and Next Digital – editor-in-chief Ryan Law, chief executive Cheung Kim Hung, Chief Operating Officer Chow Tat Kuen, Deputy Chief Editor Chan Pui Man and Chief Executive Editor Cheung Chi Wai were detained.

The raid is the latest blow to media tycoon Jimmy Lai, the tabloid’s owner and a staunch Beijing critic.

Security Secretary John Lee describes the newsroom as a “crime scene” and says the operation is aimed at those who use reporting as a “tool to endanger” national security.

“We are talking about a conspiracy in which these suspects try to make use of journalistic work to collude with a foreign country or external element to impose sanctions or take hostile activities against Hong Kong and … China,” Mr Lee said.