Enlarge image
A protester after the "Apple Daily" editorial office was searched
Photo: LAM YIK / REUTERS
The Hong Kong newspaper "Apple Daily" of the jailed China critic Jimmy Lai is about to give up.
After a raid last week and an asset freeze, it is currently very difficult for the pro-democratic medium, Lais advisor Mark Simon told Reuters.
"It's essentially a matter of a few days," he said.
"We thought we'd make it by the end of the month."
It has become impossible to do banking.
The newspaper's publisher, the media group Next Digital, will hold a board meeting on Monday to discuss how to proceed.
Restriction of the freedom of the press
In May, the authorities had frozen Lai's shares in Next Digital and the balances in local bank accounts of three of his companies.
Last week, Hong Kong police raided the newspaper and took five executives away.
The newspaper reacted to the repression with an enormous increase in circulation: on the following Friday, instead of the usual 80,000 copies, 500,000 copies were at the kiosks in Hong Kong.
Western governments, human rights groups and journalists' associations sharply criticized the search of the newspaper office and the arrest of the leadership.
You see in the move a further restriction of the freedom of the press in Hong Kong by the government in Beijing.
China said freedom of the press could not be a "shield" to commit crimes and called the criticism "interference".
Apple Daily owner is in jail
The "Apple Daily" owner and activist Lai is currently serving a 20-month sentence on charges of inciting unauthorized protests.
In addition, he is being investigated for alleged violations of the so-called security law.
The security law was introduced last year in response to ongoing mass protests.
It targets the pro-democratic opposition and is directed against activities that Beijing sees as subversive, separatist, terrorist or conspiratorial.
From the point of view of critics, it serves to silence the opposition and cement the power of the Communist Party.
lau / Reuters
