Public support for pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily has increased since five of its top editors and senior executives were arrested. The newspaper’s print run has increased to 500,000 copies. The paper usually has a circulation of 80,000. The arrests were made on Thursday morning on national security charges. The owner of a Mongkok newsstand told AFP he normally sells 60 copies of Apple Daily, but on Friday had sold 1,800 before morning.
Hong Kong police charged the editor-in-chief Ryan Law and chief executive officer Cheung Kim-hung of the tabloid on Friday with foreign collusion, inciting fear among media in the city.
The other three, Chief Executive Officer Chow Tat-kuen, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Chan Puiman and Editor-in-Chief Cheung Chi-Wai, are still under investigation.
The United Nations human rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, told Reuters on Friday that the raid "sends an even more chilling message for media freedom".
Police said the editors were arrested on suspicion of foreign collusion to endanger national security, based on over 30 articles that authorities said had called for international sanctions against China and Hong Kong, AP reported.
Post the latest move by Beijing against the media, a symbol of civil liberties in the semi-autonomous city, people have been lining up at newsstands and convenience stores to get their hands on copies of the paper.
Apple Daily’s founder Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 14 months in prison. Lai and nine others were charged with incitement to take part in an unauthorised assembly, for their roles in a protest on October 1, 2019, when they walked down a road with thousands of others.
After China, passed the national security law in a bid to come down hard on the protests that took place in 2019-2020, several pro-democracy activists have fled Hong Kong and several others jailed.
One resident, William Chan, said he bought a copy of the paper as a show of support.
“It was such a groundless arrest and suppressed freedom of the press,” he said.
Passage of the national security law goes against the one-state two systems arrangement, that has been followed since the city was handed over by the British to China in 1997. The law was imposed after massive protests in 2019 called for democratic reforms. The passage of the law, which allows authorities to arrest pro-democracy leaders on grounds of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign countries, has caught the attention of western media and western powers have critiqued China for imposing the law.
The arrested editors and executives could face up to life in prison if convicted.
Security Minister John Lee had on Thursday warned other journalists to distance themselves from those under investigation at Apple Daily and said that anyone who was “in cahoots” with them would pay a hefty price.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the US strongly condemned the arrests. He said, “We are deeply concerned by Hong Kong authorities' selective use of the national security law to arbitrarily target independent media organizations.”
“As we all know, exchanging views with foreigners in journalism should never be a crime,” he added.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a tweet that freedom of the press is one of the rights China had promised to protect for 50 years when the city was handed over to China by Britain in 1997.
