At the end of the day Sunday, the Hong Kong news site CitizenNews announced "with a
heavy heart
" that it would cease operations on Tuesday and that its website would be closed "
later
", to "
ensure the safety of all
".
The announcement comes three days after police raided another independent site, StandNews, accused of sedition.
The latter announced its closure a few hours later.
See also Coup de grace for press freedom in Hong Kong
CitizenNews, a non-partisan, user-funded news site founded in 2017 by a group of senior journalists, is one of Hong Kong's most popular online news outlets, with over 800,000 social media subscribers. . During the past year, he had hired several journalists from other media, as the authorities tightened their control over the press.
“
Unfortunately, we can no longer strive to turn our beliefs into reality without fear due to the drastic change in society over the past two years and the deteriorating media environment,
” the outlet said in a statement.
Hong Kong Radio Television came under the control of pro-government leaders while pro-democracy Apple Daily, accused of posing a threat to national security, was forced to shut down.
China has tightened its control over Hong Kong since massive and often violent pro-democracy protests engulfed the city in 2019, including cracking down on the local press.
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