Hong Kong's Apple Daily could be forced to shut down in 'matter of days', says adviser

Hong Kong pro-democracy paper Apple Daily could be forced to shut down in a "matter of days" as authorities froze the company’s assets under sweeping national security law. According to BBC, Mark Simon, who is an adviser of the paper's jailed founder Jimmy Lai, said that the paper could do nothing while none of its bank accounts is functioning. He added that if the firm doesn't have money, they can't order services. 

Last week, the Hong Kong officials froze HK$18m ($2.3m; £1.64m) of assets owned by three companies linked to Apple Daily. While speaking to the media outlet, Simon said, "you can't promise to pay people when you don't have access to the cash to cover those expenses. That's illegal in Hong Kong". He went on to say that the paper is still on the newsstands today but it is only a "matter of days" before it won't be there unless its bank accounts are unfrozen. 

Now, the paper's publisher, Next Digital, will be holding a board meeting to discuss the paper's future. Apple Daily on Sunday reportedly said that it only had enough cash to continue normal operations for "several weeks". 

China’s crackdown on Apple Daily 

Meanwhile, the news comes two days after chief editor Ryan Law and chief executive Cheung Kim-hung were denied bail after being charged with collusion with a foreign country. The two executives were among five others who were arrested on Thursday when 500 police raised the outlet’s newsroom. Police said the arrests were based on more than 30 articles that had appeared in the Apple Daily since the security law took effect. 

The latest clampdown by pro-Beijing authorities in Hong Kong has caused a stir across the globe as Apple Daily is one of the significant news outlets that emerged as a major pro-democracy paper with rigorously calling out China’s heavy-handed responses and a clampdown on Hong Kong’s autonomy. While the paper has been around in the former British colony for 26 years, Thursday’s crackdown resulted in the arrest of five along with 44 news material hard disks seized. The police force’s national security department reportedly said that the five were detained on the suspicion of collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to threaten the national security through the articles which police said called for additional sanctions to be imposed on Hong Kong and mainland China.

With the front page reading “We must press on,” Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, on the other hand, responded to the police raid and arrests. As a protest, and showcasing resilience, the reporters of the Hong Kong daily spent the entire Thursday night (local time) in the newsrooms to work on a ‘defiant’ edition with the main story reading, “National security police searched Apple, arrested five people, seized 44 news material hard disks”. In a separate message to readers on its app, Apple Daily also said that Hong Kong’s press freedom was “hanging by a thread”. The pro-democracy newspaper said that it is “suffering a targetted crackdown by the regime”. “All members of Apple Daily will stand tall and firm,” the firm added. 

IMAGE: AP