‘The blackest day’: Apple Daily’s demise comes as
no surprise
Analysis: a palpable chill has run through the Hong
Kong media, amid warnings about ‘fake news’
Vincent Ni
China affairs correspondent
Wed 23 Jun
2021 14.46 BST
The fate of
Apple Daily, one of Hong Kong’s bestselling tabloids, should not come as a
surprise. On the day Jimmy Lai, its founder, was sentenced to 14 months in
prison in April, a commentary in the pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao called
for a ban on Apple Daily in order to “close national security loopholes”.
The
72-year-old media tycoon and his 26-year-old newspaper have been among the most
high-profile critics of Beijing and the controversial national security law
(NSL), which they deem “draconian”, but which the authorities say is
“necessary”. The law bars secession, subversion and foreign collusion.
Shortly
after the news of the paper’s closure made headlines on Wednesday, campaign
groups criticised the move. Amnesty International said in a statement that it
was “the blackest day for media freedom in Hong Kong’s recent history”. “The
fact that the authorities are using the national security law to enable this
crackdown highlights the deeply repressive nature of the legislation,” it
wrote.
But while
critics argue recent moves endanger press freedom, the authorities appear to
have their own framing of the saga. On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s chief executive,
Carrie Lam, told critics not to “beautify these acts of endangering national
security”. Lam’s security chief, John Lee, last week urged the public and the
media to cut all ties with several of the newspaper’s executives who had been
arrested, “or you’ll regret it very much”.
In Beijing,
China’s state broadcaster remarked last month that “doomsday is getting closer
and closer” for the “rotten apple that plagued Hong Kong for 20 years”. The
Global Times this week quoted Louis Chen, the general secretary of Hong Kong
Legal Exchange Foundation, as saying: “What Apple Daily has done is crystal
clear: the paper takes the national security law as nothing by continuing
violating the law and it has gone far beyond ethical and journalistic
standards.”
To some
mainland Chinese, Apple Daily is a symbol of a split in Chinese identity and
the newspaper itself has been viewed as controversial over the years. In 2012,
for example, it published a full-page advertisement calling mainland Chinese
“locusts” who swarmed Hong Kong to drain its resources. On the social media
platform Weibo, a related hashtag created when the paper’s editor was arrested
has been viewed 110m times.
Yet, all of
this is happening as businesses and news media are recalibrating their
strategies in Hong Kong amid the change in political atmosphere. Therefore, the
chilling effect among media and individuals is also palpable.
“When
people as outspoken as me are unwilling to speak on air about this subject,
then you can reasonably infer that they no longer feel safe to speak under the
NSL,” David Webb, a prominent Hong Kong investor who held shares in Next
Digital – Apple Daily’s parent company – told the media.
For many
years, the culture of free speech in Hong Kong attracted the likes of the New
York Times and the Financial Times to expand their operations in the former
British colony. But in the last few years, as both local and foreign
journalists’ associations complain about “deterioration of press freedom”, news
media have been rethinking their Hong Kong strategies, too.
The New
York Times, for example, last year announced its intention to move some of its
Hong Kong staff to Seoul because the NSL “unsettled news organisations and
created uncertainty about the city’s prospects as a hub for journalism”.
Several other international news outlets are said to be planning a similar
move.
International
press may have the luxury to choose where to be based, but local organisations
are likely to end up with limited options. It is difficult to predict what is
next in this fluid situation, but analysts are taking the authorities’ use of
the Trump-era phrase “fake news” in recent weeks as an indication.
Last month,
Lam said her government was working on “fake news” legislation to tackle
“misinformation, hatred and lies”. “We will continue to be very serious about
this issue because of the damage it is doing to many people,” she said.
Shortly
after that remark, the police sent a glossy pamphlet called “Know the facts:
rumours and lies can never be right” to a few Hong Kong-based newsrooms,
including the New York Times. Accompanying it was a letter addressed to
editors, warning against the “wicked and slanderous attacks” on the police.
“In the
real world, the police faced much street violence; in the virtual world, the
police were vilified in the media and on the internet,” the 12-page pamphlet
said. “Fake news was maliciously published to slander police officers … These
allegations were intended to paint police officers as untrustworthy, and no
effort was spared in undermining the work of the police.”
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