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Hong Kong, China – The latest version of Apple Daily, a Hong Kong-based pamphlet that served as a democratic and anti-Chinese leader, released the machine, four days after the newspaper celebrated its 26th anniversary.
The paper was seized by police twice in the past 10 months on suspicion of violating a National Security Law law passed by Beijing about a year ago. Since the first attack last August, the founder, Jimmy Lai, 73, has been in jail pending trial.
Last week’s attack saw five senior supervisors, including their editor-in-chief, arrested for security reasons as 500 police officers stormed Apple’s headquarters, and another employee – secretary-general’s secretary – was arrested Wednesday morning.
The last nail in the coffin, however, was the suspension of Hong Kong officials from the bank accounts of the publishing group with the paper. The move resulted in the paper not being able to pay staff and vendors, although readers picked up copies to show their support.
The idea was based on “employee safety and employee considerations”, Apple Daily said when announcing its closure on Wednesday.
“It simply came to our notice then. Be careful. ”
Hong Kong was restored to Chinese rule in 1997 under the auspices of a “one-state, two-state system” that is meant to guarantee freedom and independence from the surface. For the past 20 years, this section has remained the foundation of freedom of the press in a country where journalists are closed.
“The dissolution of Apple Daily ignores ‘one country, two systems’ and introduces ‘one country, one system,'” said Willy Lam, a longtime commentator on Chinese politics and a senior editor at the newspaper.
Brave, brash
Established just two years before its acquisition, Apple Daily was immediately a gambler and a leap of faith.
“The paper not only affected Hong Kong but also supported China’s liberation,” Lam told Al Jazeera. “But as China has become increasingly disillusioned with the West, the newspaper has established security protocols in Hong Kong and blamed Beijing.”
In its first release, Apple Daily said it wanted to be a Hong Kong-based newspaper.
Lai, its founder and fundraiser, a devout Catholic who excelled in fashion, mentioned the paper after the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden in the Old Testament. His jingle dance song – “Apple per day, no liar can take it” – attracted the attention of Hong Kong readers who love to offer more and more offerings.
It was a boost. It was brave. It was very bright.
The newspaper caught the attention of the newspaper with a cover photo of Deng Xiaoping – China’s top leader who died in February 1997 at the age of 92 – on a deathbed on the front page.
Brashness was his shop.
Its journalists often suspect government officials and spend their money.
“They speak the truth in power and find a way to benefit,” said Lokman Tsui, an assistant professor of journalism at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Jimmy Lai, standing next to a printing press in 2009, wrote a well-known paper in support of democracy, he was not afraid to speak the truth strongly and criticize the Communist Party in Beijing [File: Alex Hofford/EPA]
Apple Daily co-founder and co-founder Jimmy Lai was arrested in August under a national security law and the newspaper’s headquarters were bombed. He is now bound [File: Tyrone Siu/Reuters]
The paper sat up and down. The astonishing prevalence of the colors of women’s clothing was reflected in the same section of the paper as erudite monuments with Latin and Classical Chinese words. With the exception of a few exceptions, the authors of the list were those who were in the realm of democracy.
Giving people what they want
Originally at the beginning of the internet age, every day was fast becoming accustomed to the digital world. Her website has created a lot of noise – mixed, short pictures and clever pictures that are deceptively interpreted. His live streak on YouTube produced the following.
Within a decade, the paper’s circulation reached 500,000 in a city of about six million people with twelve dailies.
Apple Daily’s advertising campaign will soon make the newspaper a thorn in the side of the China Communist Party. But for Lai, the wealthy millionaire now known as Public Enemy No. 1 and Beijing, all of this was just to give its customers something to buy, even to protest the banners.
In the summer of 2019, among many lawmakers who could send Hong Kong nationals to trial in China, the newspaper reported that “going to China” in young Cantonese words sees a person in a cemetery. The words caught on right away and became a tribute to the show.
“Sometimes, we could have gone too far but everything we did was against the law,” said Robert Chan, 45, who wrote about China in a paper three years ago.
To the extent that the security law, which provides for the punishment of those whom the government considers to be perversion, rebellion, alliance with foreign forces and secession and imprison him for life.
Opponents have repeatedly used Lai meetings with US officials in recent years, from vice-president to the ground, as “evidence” of “working with foreign powers”.
Employees at Apple Daily and their publisher Next Digital are working on the final version of their newspaper on June 23. In its first issue, the newspaper said it wanted to cover the people of Hong Kong. It printed a million copies of its final edition [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]
Earlier last month, rumors began circulating that Beijing wanted to see the paper close during the Communist Party’s centenary celebrations on July 1.
A professional journalist for ten years, Alex Tang, 37, said that like many of his colleagues he was ready to take on unsubstantiated gossip and salt – until the second attack by the company cooled.
Over the past few days, some of the 800 journalists in the paper have been frustrated by the lack of a definitive answer on the last day of publication and the loss of employment.
“The leaders have said they will continue until the end, and they have kept their promise,” Tang said. “The company has done very well.”
Apple Daily remains a website on the autonomous island of Taiwan, where it stopped publishing papers last month.
But in Hong Kong, Chinese journalist Chan will mourn the loss of more than his gains.
“As the paper went, so did the principles it represents: the pursuit of freedom and democracy,” he said.
* The journalists asked for their names to be changed for security reasons.
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