Hong Kong news outlet to close amid crackdown on dissent

PTI, Jan 3, 2022, 8:26 AM IST

Image credit: AP

Hong Kong: A Hong Kong online news site said Sunday that it would cease operations in light of deteriorating press freedoms, days after police raided and arrested seven people for sedition at a separate pro-democracy news outlet. Citizen News announced its decision in a Facebook post on Sunday. It said it would stop updating its site on January 4, and it would be shuttered after that.

“We have always loved this land, but at present, we are helpless as we are not only facing wind and rain, but tornadoes and huge waves,” it said in a statement.

“We have never forgotten our original intentions, but it is a pity that the rapid changes in society in the past two years and the deterioration of the media environment have prevented us from achieving our ideals without worry.” Citizen News is the third news outlet to close in recent months, following pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and online site Stand News. Authorities have moved to silent dissent in the semi-autonomous city, once known as a hub for vibrant media outlets, after Beijing implemented a sweeping national security law following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.

The impending closure of Citizen News came days after authorities raided Stand News and arrested seven people — including editors and former board members — for allegedly conspiring to publish seditious material. Stand News announced on the same day that it would cease to operate.

Two of Stand News’ former editors were later formally charged with sedition. In December, the opposition was shut out from elections under a new law that puts all candidates to a loyalty test, and monuments commemorating the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing were taken down.

The US and other Western governments have condemned diminishing press and civil freedoms that Beijing promised to uphold for 50 years following Hong Kong’s 1997 handover from Britain. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam last week defended the raid on Stand News, telling reporters that “inciting other people … could not be condoned under the guise of news reporting.”