International press condemns China’s shuttering of the Apple Daily

The Hong Kong Free Press reports that papers in Scandinavia all carried a letter demanding that Beijing respect press freedoms in Hong Kong.

A translation of the letter, addressed to the People's Republic of China, reads that "Four leading newspapers from the Nordic countries join in a protest against China's violation of freedom of the press in Hong Kong. The protest follows the closure of the newspaper Apple Daily and is published on the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Chinese Communist Party.

"It has been too much for a long time. Now, enough is enough," editors from four major papers across Scandinavia write. "The world can no longer stand idly by as China gradually sucks the air out of freedom of the press in Hong Kong. Our hope is that China would live up to its assurances and promised that basic democratic civil liberties would be defended and protected in Hong Kong has been dwindling lately, while our fear and disdain has been growing."

They writer that their "hope regrettably died with the independent newspaper Apple Daily collapsed under the violation of the freedom of the press by authorities."

The New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post, and others, have done little to denounce Beijing's horrifying stifling of the freedoms of Hong Kongers. The New York Times, in fact, has run stories about how the international community should simply accept that Hong Kong is part of China, subject to all CCP laws, despite treaties made during the 1997 hand-off of Hong Kong by the UK to China.

The Apple Daily, run and founded by Jimmy Lai, has been a thorn in the side of the CCP for some time, and with the help of US media, the CCP was able to shut down the paper entirely. Apple Daily ran its final edition, with a run of 1 million copies, on June 24. The CCP used reporting from NBC, that was uncorroborated, as part of their justification for bringing the paper to its knees.

Operating under Beijing's discretion, the offices of the Apple Daily were raided and its staff and owner were arrested under new national security laws that aim to bring Hong Kong fully under Chinese mainland control. Law enforcement officials claim that The Apple Daily violated security law by criticizing that security law.

A note on Apple Daily's website reads: "Thank you to all readers, subscribers, ad clients and Hong Kongers for 26 years of immense love and support. Here we say goodbye, take care of yourselves."

The offices were raided by nearly 200 police officers last August, and was again raided last week by 500 officers. Lai was arrested in August, while last week another five executives with the paper were taken into custody.

Lai is in prison, his assets frozen. Lai had been the primary backer of the paper. He is charged with having been involved in protests and "unauthorized assemblies" during 2020, when pro-democracy activists worked hard to keep Hong Kong free before being effectively silenced by the communist party.

Carrie Lam, who is the elected leader in Hong Kong but serves with the backing of the CCP, said that the people who criticized the raid on Apple Daily's offices and presses were simply trying to "beautify" the protests, which she said endangered national security. The CCP claims it has a right to shut down newspapers, saying that media freedoms are basically at the discretion of the party.

The Apple Daily was widely read by dissidents and those would would advocate for a Hong Kong free from authoritarianism.