Hong Kong purge to hit more media outlets

Management of the newspaper have decided to bring forward Apple’s final edition after police detained its lead editorial writer.

Journalists at work in the newsroom of the Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong. Picture: AFP.

Beijing’s purge of Hong Kong media has spread from moguls to editors to individual journalists – and more outlets are expected to be forced to close after the crushing of pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily.

Management of the unruly newspaper decided to bring forward Apple’s final edition to Thursday hours after police ­detained its lead editorial writer on Wednesday morning.

Independent outlet Stand News is expected to be next in the crosshairs, along with the English-language website Hong Kong Free Press and other smaller online titles not deemed “patriotic” enough by Beijing and its Hong Kong enforcers.

“It’s dangerous just to report and to write,” said Ted Hui, a former Hong Kong politician who fled to Australia this year to ­escape Beijing’s crackdown on independent voices. “Management doesn’t want more and more people to get arrested.”

Hong Kong police have ­enforced the Beijing-authored national security law with ­increasing zeal ahead of the ­legislation’s first anniversary on June 30 – which is also the day the Chinese Communist Party will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

President Xi Jinping has ­ordered officials to tighten security measures throughout China to make sure the party’s birthday festivities are not disrupted. The newsstands of Hong Kong are a top priority.

Veteran democracy campaigner Joseph Cheng said he was shocked by the manner of Apple’s swift demise.

Authorities froze the media company’s bank accounts, imperilling the paper even before charges against its staff had been heard.

“The way it has been handled remains shocking,” Professor Cheng said.

Speaking from Auckland, he said the pro-democracy Stand News would likely be the “next target” for Beijing.

“It’s a very sad situation. Most of my friends in Hong Kong are prepared for the worst,” he said.

Mr Hui, who is now based in Adelaide, said individual presenters at commercial radio were also likely “at risk” of being swept up in the clampdown.

“It’s painful. My heart’s so heavy,” he said.

Wednesday morning’s arrest of Apple’s 55-year-old editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee seemed to be designed to send a message to Apple staff as they prepared to farewell their readers.

He was interviewed by police “on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign countries or ­foreign forces to endanger ­national security”, a day after he had written an editorial urging readers to “never yield”.

“Whether it is the period of the Cultural Revolution in China or the period of the Nazis in Germany, it is a dark age in the history of human civilisation. However, there is always a time when darkness passes,” Apple ­editorialised.

Hours after the arrest, the ­publisher of Apple’s sister publication, Next Magazine, ­announced it was closing too.

“Some colleagues feel reluctant to give up and they still have a little bit of hope. I have to tell them bluntly: ‘stop dreaming’,” wrote publisher Louise Wong Lai-Sheung.

By early Wednesday evening, the South China Morning Post revealed Apple would publish its last print edition on Thursday. It had previously planned to end its 26 years in Hong Kong on Saturday.

Thursday’s farewell will hit newsstands one week after 500 police officers raided Apple’s headquarters and arrested the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, the chief executive of its parent company Next Digital and three other executives.

Apple’s famously outspoken 72-year-old founder Jimmy Lai has already been imprisoned and is serving multiple 14-month ­sentences, with further charges possible.

His wife and daughter were photographed last week on their way to visit him in prison. They were carrying a copy of the paper he founded in 1995 – two years ­before the handover of the former British colony to China.