IBAHRI condemns forced closure of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper

Friday 25 June 2021

Image credit: Yu Chun Christopher Wong / Shutterstock.com (right)

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) is deeply concerned by the news that crippling asset freezes, imposed by authorities in Hong Kong, have forced the closure of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, after 26 years of operation.

The closure of Apple Daily coincides with the first trial of an individual under the National Security Law, which is set to take place without a jury. The accused potentially faces life in prison if convicted.

Earlier this week the IBAHRI expressed its condemnation of the raid and arrests that took place on 17 June 2021 during which five newspaper employees were arrested and HK$18 million (US$2.3 million) in assets were frozen. An advisor to the newspaper’s owner Jimmy Lai, subsequently confirmed that accounts holding more than HK$500 million (US$64 million) had also been locked. The IBAHRI had warned that these efforts were designed to cause the cessation of trading of Apple Daily and expressed grave concern for freedom of expression and the future of democracy in Hong Kong.

IBAHRI Co-Chair and former Justice of the High Court of Australia (1996-2006), the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, commented: ‘The comprehensive freezing of Apple Daily assets has produced for the authorities the desired outcome of muzzling journalists. Freedom of expression, as protected under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has been wholly trampled. With deliberate intention and complete disregard for international norms, the new sweeping National Security Law is altering the standing of Hong Kong as a beacon of democracy where the human rights of its citizens, including freedom of speech and expression, are respected and upheld and international business flourishes because it is recognised that adherence to the rule of law exists. We urge an end to the oppression of free speech and expression in Hong Kong; harbingers of wholesale deterioration of human rights and a voiceless people. This is a long way from the “one people, two systems” promised at the time of the handover of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. We call on the United Kingdom to remind China of its promise and to desist from this intrusion upon the human rights to free expression of the people of Hong Kong’.

The announcement that the newspaper would be closing, followed the arrest, under the National Security Law, of Apple Daily’s lead opinion writer who published under the name Li Ping. Police said that some of Li’s articles, which were deemed to be acts of foreign collusion, dated back to 2019, before the introduction of the National Security Law in June 2020.

The final printed edition of Apple Daily was sold on 24 June, with a million copies reported to have been printed. The online digital version of the newspaper ceased to be updated. The decision on the viability of the newspaper was originally to have been made on 25 June. The date was brought forward by the arrest of Li, who was the first of its writers to be targeted by the National Security Law, and in consideration of ‘staff members’ safety’.

IBAHRI Co-chair and Immediate Past Secretary General of the Swedish Bar Association, Anne Ramberg Dr Jur hc, said: ‘The closure of Apple Daily will have a chilling effect on free speech throughout Hong Kong as journalists and citizens alike resort to self-censorship for their own safety. The quality of democratic discourse in Hong Kong will be undermined with dissenters living in perpetual fear of potential arrest, fines and/or lengthy prison sentences. The introduction of the National Security Law by Beijing has almost annihilated Hong Kong’s autonomy, including its judicial autonomy with some cases to be heard behind closed doors. Together with reports that the government is working on ‘fake news’ legislation, which will deem critical speech a threat to national security and also carry hefty fines and imprisonment, Hong Kongers will be left with little-to-no avenue for dissent’.

Ms Ramberg added, ‘The current National Security Law and the proposed ‘fake news’ law are contrary to the norms of international law, incompatible with the rule of law and fundamental human rights, and inconsistent with the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR.’

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, defended the actions taken against Apple Daily and denied that they amounted to an attack on press freedom. She additionally refused to clarify how journalists might avoid breaching the National Security Law, saying the law was ‘very well defined’ and that the media has the ability to determine whether or not its activities endanger national security.

News sites had reported that Ms Lam had not seen the full text of the National Security Law prior to its enactment and that before its passing she told the United Nations Human Rights Council that it would fill a ‘gaping hole’, not undermine Hong Kong's autonomy or its independent judiciary, and would not be retroactive.

ENDS

Notes to the Editor

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