Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily will be forced to shut “in a matter of days,” as authorities have frozen the company’s assets, an adviser to jailed business tycoon Jimmy Lai, who founded the newspaper, told Reuters on Monday.
Speaking on the phone from the United States (US), adviser Mark Simon said Next Digital, the parent company and publisher of the famous Hong Kong newspaper, will hold a board meeting on Monday to discuss the way forward. “We thought we’d be able to make it to the end of the month. It’s just getting harder and harder. It’s essentially a matter of days,” Simon said, adding that it has now become impossible for the newspaper to carry out banking operations. “Vendors tried to put money into our accounts and were rejected. We can’t bank. Some vendors tried to do that as a favour. We just wanted to find out, and it got rejected,” he said.
In another interview with CNN, Simon elaborated on the problem created by the asset freeze. “Our problem at Apple Daily is not that we don’t have funds; we have $50 million in the bank. Our problem is the Secretary of Security and the police will not let us pay our reporters, they will not let us pay our staff, and they will not let us pay our vendors. They have locked up our accounts,” he said.
The newspaper is further concerned that not having enough resources to pay the salaries of its employees at the end of this month puts it at risk of being charged for the violation of labour laws. Consequently, the paper plans to request the Hong Kong Security Bureau to unfreeze the assets to combat the situation. If they fail, the newspaper reported that it would challenge the decision in court. Meanwhile, it is also reviewing its stocks of ink and paper.
A possible shutdown report came two days after the newspaper’s chief editor, Ryan Law, and chief executive Cheung Kim-hung were denied bail after being charged with conspiracy with a foreign country. The crackdown has also intensified on its founder, Jimmy Lai, a vehement Beijing critic, arrested under the Beijing-imposed national security law (NSL) in August 2020. Last month, the authorities froze Lai’s assets along with those of his media company. Around the same time, the media tycoon pleaded guilty to organising and attending an unauthorised assembly on October 1, 2019. Simultaneously, Secretary for Security John Lee also issued notices to freeze all shares of his Next Digital Ltd. media company, along with the local bank accounts of three other companies owned by Lai. It was a significant move, since Hong Kong’s local authorities, for the first time, used the draconian security law to freeze the shares of a major investor in a listed company.
Last Thursday, Lee announced that an additional $2.3 million of the newspaper’s assets were being blocked. In this regard, Simon, wanted by Hong Kong police on charges of breaching the NSL, told CNN that since “all orders from basically the Secretary of Security,” the company is “facing a security agency” instead of courts. The crackdown continued as more than 200 Hong Kong police officers raided the newspaper’s headquarters last week and arrested five senior executives on suspicion of violating the NSL.
The impending shut down of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper is another blow to the financial hub’s struggle against China’s increasing political and social control in its fight for democracy.
Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Newspaper Apple Daily Nears Shutdown Following Asset Freeze
Pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily is on the verge of shutting down “in days,” as the Hong Kong newspaper’s cash flow remains restricted following an asset freeze.
June 21, 2021
SOURCE: VINCENT YU/AP