Reporters Without Borders Condemns Shutdown Of Hong Kong's Apple Daily

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2021) Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday described the closure of Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper as a "chilling message" to press freedom.

Earlier in the day, the media's board of directors announced that Apple Daily will shut down its operations from June 27, as they are unable to pay staff and suppliers after Beijing froze their financial assets.

"The tearing down of Apple Daily, one of the last major Chinese-language media critical of the Beijing regime, after years of harassment, is sending a chilling message to Hong Kong journalists," RSF East Asia bureau head Cedric Alviani said.

Alviani went on to call on the global community to step in.

"If the international community does not respond with the utmost determination, President Xi Jinping will know that he can erase press freedom in Hong Kong with complete impunity, as he has already done in the rest of China," the RSF East Asia bureau chief stated.

Earlier this month, Apple Daily reported that hundreds of police officers had raided the tabloid's headquarters in the Tseung Kwan O district in Hong Kong. The newspaper said that several of its executives were arrested and accused of "collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security."

The founder of Apple Daily, Jimmy Lai, earlier became the highest-profile Hong Kong citizen arrested under the new national security law. He was found guilty of organizing and taking part in unauthorized rallies in the summer of 2019 and sentenced to a year in prison in April. In May, the media tycoon got another 14 months of imprisonment.