Apple Daily was a beacon of free speech. Now it has been forced to close by China’s sweeping national security law. Does its demise signal a new chapter in Hong Kong?
Apple Daily is one of Hong Kong’s most popular newspapers, standing for freedom of speech and backing the city’s pro-democracy movement as it attempted to resist Beijing’s draconian national security law and wider attempts to muzzle dissent. Last week, after hundreds of
police raided the publication’s headquarters, confiscated journalists’ laptops and arrested senior staff, it published its final edition. Even after many setbacks for activists, the closure of the newspaper has been seen as a significant development – and, some argue, the end of freedom of speech in the city.
Rachel Humphreys spoke to a journalist there as they worked to put out that last issue. And she hears from Helen Davidson, reporting from Taipei, about how events of the past fortnight have unfolded, and the Guardian’s
China affairs correspondent, Vincent Ni, about what the closure says about Beijing’s approach to Hong Kong – and what signal it sends to China’s citizens about the perils of dissent.