Hong Kong adviser assures residents buying Apple Daily won’t violate national security law as queues greet first edition after arrests
- ‘Core issue’ behind Thursday arrests of five of the tabloid’s senior executives was articles calling for sanctions on the city or central government, Ronny Tong says
- Newsstands, meanwhile, reported brisk sales, with some customers saying they believed purchasing the Friday edition was a way of expressing support for press freedom
Ronny Tong Ka-wah’s reassurances, which followed Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu being quizzed on the issue a day prior, came as some Hongkongers flocked to purchase the tabloid in a show of support, with morning queues at some newsstands and additional copies stacked at convenience stores.
The newspaper said it had printed about 500,000 copies of Friday’s edition – among the most ever since its launch in 1995 – which led with the arrests on the front page and a headline quoting publisher Cheung Kim-hung as saying “everyone must hold on”. Cheung is also CEO of Apple Daily’s parent Next Digital.
At a newsstand in Kwai Fong, orderly queues could be seen, with a few people buying three or more copies at once.
“I bought Apple Daily because I want to support press freedom … What happened yesterday shouldn’t have happened at all in Hong Kong,” said a woman surnamed Yong, 31.
Wilson Lee, in his 40s, said: “We Hongkongers don’t have any way to change what happened yesterday, so this is our way of showing support and, to some extent, comforting ourselves.”
At a convenience store in Aberdeen, a staff member told the Post they usually order 70 copies and about 20 are left at the end of the day. They ordered 400 for Friday and had sold about 100 by about 9am.
Apple Daily arrests mark first time police deem publication of newspaper articles a crime under national security law
But a 65 year-old passer-by, surnamed Wong, said he did not read Apple Daily because he disagreed with the paper’s calls for the United States and other foreign countries to sanction Hong Kong.
The force on Thursday arrested Cheung Kim-hung, Apple Daily editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong, associate publisher Chan Pui-man, digital director Cheung Chi-wai, Next Digital chief financial officer Royston Chow Tat-kuen on suspicion of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and external elements.
Some 200 officers entered the paper’s Tseung Kwan O offices to conduct a top-to-bottom sweep, with a search warrant from court that empowered them to seize journalistic materials and go through reporters’ laptops.
“The core issue was [the articles] calling for foreign forces to impose sanctions or take hostile action against Hong Kong and the central government. Any other acts that do not touch on this would not offend the law, such as buying copies of the newspaper,” Tong told a Friday morning radio show.
If the arrests only [targeted] the senior staff … why did [police] not freeze the assets of the five senior staff members instead?
When asked on Thursday if people subscribing to the newspaper would breach the law, Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu ignored the question, but said journalists were free to do their job as long as they had no intent to “endanger national security”.
Tong also argued that the arrests had targeted senior staff members of Apple Daily rather than the paper itself.
“The [arrests] did not have an immediate or direct relation with reporting news or the freedom of the press,” he said.
But Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun, chair of public law of the University of Hong Kong’s law department, disagreed, noting police had also frozen HK$18 million (US$2.32 million) in assets of the three affiliated Apple Daily companies.
“If the arrests only [targeted] the senior staff … why did [police] not freeze the assets of the five senior staff members instead?” he asked on another radio programme.
Chan also said police had cited “unclear” grounds for the arrests, raising concerns it would lead to increased self-censorship among media outlets in the city.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Friday said it was “concerned” about the events’ affect on freedom of expression, following criticism from the European Union and Britain on Thursday, which slammed the crackdown for silencing the media.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Ned Price strongly condemned the arrests, and called for the group’s immediate release.
“We are deeply concerned by Hong Kong authorities’ selective use of the national security law to arbitrarily target independent media organisations,” he said. “The charges of, quote, ‘collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security’ appear to be entirely politically motivated.”
Apple Daily arrests could encourage self-censorship, experts warn
Price also said the United States deplored the reported assertion by a Hong Kong police official that articles published in Apple Daily were evidence of the “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces”.
“As we all know, exchanging views with foreigners in journalism should never be a crime,” he said.
A spokesman for the European Union also said the arrests further demonstrated how the security law was being used to stifle the media and freedom of expression in Hong Kong.
“The European Union reiterates that media freedom and pluralism, are essential components of an open and free society, and fundamental to Hong Kong’s success as an international hub under the Basic Law and the ‘one country, two systems’ principle,” he said.
In a press conference on Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian was asked to comment on Washington’s remarks.
“Hong Kong is a society of the rule of law, everyone is equal before the law. No one has any extra-legal privileges, and no organisation can be regarded as a lawless place,” he said.
“The security law only targets a small minority of anti-China troublemakers who seriously endangered national security. It protects the rights and freedoms of the vast majority of Hong Kong residents.”
Zhao also said no foreign country or individual had the right to meddle with Hong Kong issues, which are part of China’s domestic affairs.
