At least six current or former directors and senior executives of "Stance News" were arrested on suspicion of "conspiracy to publish seditious publications." The office was also searched for evidence. After searching the offices of Next Media and Apple Daily, another media was arrested. High-profile and large-scale search by the National Security Department of the police.
"Stance News" announced the suspension of operations at about 4 pm today, and immediately left dozens of employees.
Established in 2014, "Stance" was the most familiar during the long live broadcast and narration during the anti-amendment campaign. After the fall of "Apple", it was criticized many times by the authorities. Among them, the Secretary of the Security Bureau, Deng Bingqiang, criticized "Stance" by name at the beginning of the month. Repeatedly reported biased, misleading, and demonized law enforcement agencies, warning "Any person or organization, whether it is packaged with baa, whether it is packaged with the media, or packaged with NGOs, as long as it wants to violate the law and endanger national security, We will definitely gather evidence to prove that you are breaking the law," which is suspected of paving the way for the arrest.
▼On December 29, 200 police officers searched the "Stance" office▼
+4
In recent years, "Position News", formerly known as "Home News", was co-founded by Cai Donghao, Liang Wendao, Liu Xiliang and Song Hansheng in 2012. It clearly supports the democrats, including the annual July National Congress parade and "Occupy Central". action".
However, "Home Arena" has only been in operation for two years, and it suddenly announced the end of operation in 2014.
Tsai Donghao, one of the founders at the time, explained that it was caused by the failure to balance revenue and expenditure and was not optimistic about the business prospects. He also pointed out that the atmosphere of political struggle in Hong Kong at that time was extremely disturbing. Turning over the old accounts, a white horror atmosphere permeates the society."
In July 2014, "Home Stadium" was suspended for less than half a year and reborn with "Stance"
In the same year, Cai Donghao, together with senior media professionals Zhong Peiquan and Yu Jiahui, set up "Stance News". The board of directors also includes Wu Aiyi, Fang Minsheng, He Yunshi, Lian Yizheng, Zhou Dazhi, etc., and issued a statement stating that "Home News" is abnormal. Death, we are duty-bound... In the past few months, we have learned from the pain and thought about how to stand up again. The "Situation News" is the answer."
At that time, the three promoters held long-term equity in the "Stance" through a trust arrangement, and the promoters did not have the ability to transfer the company's shares to ensure that the "Stance" was not controlled by any individual.
"Home News" has only been in operation for two years, and it suddenly announced the end of operation in 2014.
The anti-amendment law movement has increased in popularity and has been targeted by the police several times
During the anti-revision campaign, the popularity of "Stance" increased dramatically. So far, there are about 1.31 million fans on the Facebook page, and it has been targeted by the police and police supporters from time to time.
Among them, the former reporter of "Stance" He Guilan reported on two live broadcasts, including live broadcast of the retreat of the "dead men" left behind by the Legislative Council on July 1, 2019, and indiscriminate beatings by a group of white-clothed people armed with weapons at the Yuen Long West Rail Station on July 21 Citizens, she was most familiar with being beaten on the ground during the live broadcast.
Later, Chen Langsheng, deputy interview director of "Stance", participated in a regular police press conference with helmets posted with the words "chat", "police", "violent", "stop", "police", and "lie" to protest the interview. The number of pepper sprays has greatly increased.
Later, at the demonstration site, Chen Langsheng was deliberately displayed by plainclothes police officers in front of the live camera for about 40 seconds.
The editor-in-chief of directors who have been removed from the shelves for comments and stopped receiving sponsors have resigned successively
It is not the first time that the police visited the "Position" office. In January this year, they asked the then editor-in-chief Zhong Peiquan to sign a court "handover order" to assist the police in investigating a suspected violation of the National Security Law.
Later, 3 days after the publication of "Apple" ceased publication in the middle of this year, "Stance" issued an announcement explaining a series of measures to protect employees, authors and supporters, including comments on blog posts, reprinted articles and reader contributions published before June this year. All articles are temporarily removed from the shelves; termination of employment contracts with employees who have been employed for more than half a year, settlement of seniority compensation, and new appointments; stop accepting donations from new members to avoid freezing of company funds; 6 directors of the parent company Yu Jiahui, Zhou Dazhi, and Wu Ai Yi, He Yunshi, Fang Minsheng and Lian Yizheng resigned as directors, and the remaining two directors Cai Donghao and Zhong Peiquan remained in office.
At that time, most employees stayed.
As of November 7 this year, Chen Peimin, former vice president of "Apple" and husband Zhong Peiquan, posted on his personal Facebook that he had resigned from the post of editor-in-chief on November 1 due to family reasons and was signed by the deputy editor-in-chief Lin Shaotong. .
Police and Correctional Services Department have repeatedly criticized "Position" for reporting bias
After the collapse of "Apple", "Stance" has been publicly criticized by government departments many times.
On November 13, the Chief Superintendent of Police Public Relations, Guo Jiaquan, wrote to the editor-in-chief of "Stance News", stating that the content of "Graduates remembering that the humanistic spirit of Aishan City disappeared on foot" was inaccurate, causing readers to misunderstand that the police targeted The students, stirred up the feelings of hatred against the police, and also beautified the illegal behavior of the thugs at CUHK, expressing their strong dissatisfaction with this.
In less than 10 days, the Correctional Services Department issued a manuscript condemning the "Position" Special Report of the Smart Prison of the Tai Tam Gap Correctional Institution. It used the "unreasonable allegations" of non-repatriation claimants to "hype", "smear and demonize" in the past few days. The management model of the "Smart Prison" of the Correctional Services Department.
Earlier this month, Deng Bingqiang took the initiative to criticize the "biased", "misleading" and "demonized" reports of the "Position" Smart Prison. He also pointed out that "The Position" is not the first time it has "made biased and misleading reports."
He reiterated that the November "Position" report on the CUHK conflict was inconsistent with the facts. He emphasized that "the police only guarded the (CUHK) Bridge No. 2 at the time and did not give people petrol bombs to harass the Tolo Hong Kong Highway. The police had never entered. (CUHK)".
The Secretary for Security Deng Pingqiang criticized the "Position" by name for its repeated reports of biased, misleading, and demonized law enforcement agencies.
(Information Picture / Photo by Liao Yanxiong)
Deng Bingqiang warned that any person or organization "no matter what they use to pack...As long as they want to break the law and endanger national security, we (the police) will definitely find evidence that you are breaking the law. Anyone who breaks the law, we Everyone will search for evidence. Not enough today, but tomorrow; not enough tomorrow, and later.” When asked whether he was looking for evidence of a violation of the law against the "Position", he said, "I will not talk about individual cases", saying that the warning is not To a specific person, but all organizations or individuals.
The "Stance" editorial department responded on the same day that "We insist on reporting the truth. The responsibility of the media is to monitor power and present the opinions of stakeholders from all walks of life, including the voices of disadvantaged communities. We firmly believe that only sufficient freedom of speech and press will allow The exchange and confrontation of diverse views will help society to progress and achieve long-term stability."
【Pictures】Position News 6 Current or former high-level officers were arrested. 200 police officers searched the Internet Media Office to search for Position News︱The establishment of a system to support law enforcement questioned the use of reports to instigate the anti-police and the Democrats said they could not understand the search position. Press card worried about Zhong Peiquan and Lin Shaotong searching position news | Seven people were first arrested for "conspiracy to publish seditious publications" and sentenced to a maximum of 2 years in prison The six senior reporters of the "Stance News" are arrested and urged to protect the freedom of the press in accordance with the Basic Law to search for the position of the news | National Security Department mobilizes 200 people, the acting editor-in-chief in shackles, to return to Kwun Tong to search for evidence
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
