Hong Kong/Washington:
US President Joe Biden on Thursday known as the closure of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily tabloid a “sad day for media freedom” and mentioned it signaled “intensifying repression” by China, even though vowing to keep assistance for the individuals of the Chinese-ruled territory.
In a statement following the news outlet’s closure earlier on Thursday, Biden known as on Beijing to quit targeting the independent press and release detained journalists and media executives.
“People in Hong Kong have the right to freedom of the press. Instead, Beijing is denying basic liberties and assaulting Hong Kong’s autonomy and democratic institutions and processes, inconsistent with its international obligations,” he mentioned.
Apple Daily was forced to finish a 26-year run amid a national safety crackdown that froze the company’s funds. Its closure prompted snaking lines of hundreds of loyal readers at newsstands across the city.
“It is a sad day for media freedom in Hong Kong and around the world,” Biden mentioned, adding that the publication had been “a much-needed bastion of independent journalism in Hong Kong.”
“Through arrests, threats, and forcing through a National Security Law that penalizes free speech, Beijing has insisted on wielding its power to suppress independent media and silence dissenting views,” he mentioned.
BIDEN VOWS Help
Biden vowed that the United States “will not waver in our support of people in Hong Kong and all those who stand up for the basic freedoms all people deserve.”
The shutdown offers the most really serious blow but to Hong Kong’s media freedoms and could potentially destroy the city’s reputation as a media hub following Beijing imposed the safety law on the economic center last year, media advocacy groups say.
UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet took aim on Thursday at the “negative consequences” she mentioned Apple Daily owner Jimmy Lai faced for working out his rights, criticizing the tycoon’s detention.
Speaking to the 2021 Society of Publishers in Asia press awards ceremony held in Hong Kong, Bachelet mentioned the national safety law was major journalists to “self-censor” to stay away from clashing with “vaguely formulated offenses.”
Lai has been in jail considering the fact that December more than unauthorized rallies in the course of Hong Kong’s mass pro-democracy protests in 2019. He is facing 3 national safety charges, like colluding with a foreign nation and is currently serving various sentences for taking aspect in unauthorized rallies.
Britain’s foreign minister Dominic Raab known as on China to respect its commitments to no cost media below an agreement with Britain more than how Hong Kong would be ruled following its return from British rule to China in 1997.
“We certainly view what’s been happening in with the closure of the Apple Daily and the arrest of journalists very, very seriously,” he mentioned. “We call on China to respect the terms that it freely signed up to and we think that’s a matter of trust as well as important for the people of Hong Kong.”
UNAPOLOGETIC TABLOID
Apple Daily was an unapologetic tabloid that mixed pro-democracy discourse with celebrity gossip and investigations of these in energy. It had been a thorn in Beijing’s side.
Last year, just before Biden won the U.S. presidential election, it published two articles on his son Hunter Biden and his ties to a Taiwanese businessman who the paper mentioned was a purported broker “enabling Hunter Biden’s deals in mainland China over a decade”.
Lai mentioned on Twitter in October he personally had “nothing to do with” a report on Hunter Biden’s alleged China organization hyperlinks, but admitted funds from his private firm and had been used to fund it.
ONE MILLION COPIES
In anticipation of robust demand for its final print run, The Apple Daily printed 1 million copies, or more than 10 instances its usual.
Emotions ran higher on Thursday amongst supporters of the paper, which has faced an unrelenting squeeze considering the fact that Lai’s arrest in August 2020.
“I couldn’t sleep well for the past few nights,” mentioned Tse, 60, a former healthcare worker, who leaned on a cart to assistance herself as she queued for a paper. “I hope reporters can stay true to their faith and keep working hard.”
Some Apple Daily employees expressed anger and aggravation.
“(After) today, there is no press freedom in Hong Kong,” mentioned Dickson Ng, 51, a designer at the paper. “I feel very disappointed and angry.”
Last week, 500 officers raided the newspaper’s headquarters, sifting by means of reporters’ notes and other journalistic material in scenes that drew international condemnation.
Five executives have been arrested, and two – chief editor Ryan Law and Cheung Kim-hung – have been charged with conspiracy to commit collusion with a foreign nation and denied bail. On Wednesday, a columnist for the paper was also arrested below the national safety law.
Officials in Hong Kong and China have repeatedly mentioned media freedoms are respected but are not absolute.
“Hong Kong is a society that has rule of law. … No one or no organization is above the law,” a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry mentioned. “All rights and freedom, including media freedom, cannot go beyond the bottom line of national security.”
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