image courtesy- Reuters
-By NET Web Desk
The dragon it seems is trying to stare down any free voice in Hong kong.
After detaining its chief editors and owner, Apple Daily – Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper may have to soon end its circulation. On Monday, June 21, adviser to Jimmy Lai announced that within days Apple Daily will have to suspend its operations if the authorities deny them access to their bank accounts. The Board will finally decide on Friday 25th June.
A senior editor of Apple Daily informed that online news dissemination shall be ended by 11:59 PM on Friday & the final print edition will be distributed on Saturday, June 26.
“We thought we’d be able to make it to the end of the month. It’s just getting harder and harder. It’s essentially a matter of days.” – stated Mark Simon, the adviser to Jimmy Lai.
Hong Kong authorities have frozen the company’s assets under national security law.
The newspaper said that the freezing of its assets had left it with cash for “a few weeks” for normal operations – according to a Reuters report.
Earlier, Jimmy Lai’s, founder of Apple Daily – the Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper was detained again with a fresh sentence of 14 months on Friday, May 21 over his role in an unauthorized assembly organized in October 2019 is now under the clutch of a second storm.
Chief Editor – Ryan Law, and Chief Executive – Cheung Kim Hung were also denied bail.Besides three other executives were also arrested in connection, after the newspaper office was raided. They have been released on bail.
