The slow death of Apple Daily (cont’d)

Highlight of my ‘staycation’ was watching online – along with everyone – Apple Daily being raided again, and top management arrested (and later of course denied bail). 

For extra added creepiness, Security Secretary John Lee threatened others to keep away from the Apple Daily staff, or they’ll regret it. Does this apply to the suspects’ legal counsel? Do Lee’s comments (‘cut ties with these criminals’) potentially prejudice a future trial? Would/should a court accept that his and other officials’ sanctioning by the US casts doubt on their impartiality in the case? His warnings about not spreading articles – which he won’t identify – are similarly sinister. Is it illegal to buy or read Apple Daily, or to pass a copy to someone else? The whole premise of the alleged crime of ‘collusion with foreign forces’ seems to suggest it might be illegal for reporters to talk to foreigners, or for media to merely address overseas governments in op-ed columns.

Looks like Apple Daily will cease operations pretty soon – at least as a print publication, and in Hong Kong. Either the paper will run out of funds, or the NatSec Regime will find a pretext to shut it down by force. I bet they time it so there’s no chance to print 500,000 farewell copies. Will the regime block the company’s website? The CCP celebrates its 100th anniversary by silencing anyone who doesn’t bow to it.

And the key question: will a Hong Kong court now seriously declare that writing/publishing an article urging an overseas government to impose sanctions on local/Mainland officials threatens national security?

On a related note: Antony Dapiran’s latest procrastination, on the recent extensions of censorship (Claudia Mo denied bail for speaking to overseas press, documentary film censorship, etc), and the reality of ‘self-censorship’ – that it is in fact active censorship. 

Things happen when I’m away. I spent the evening of July 21, 2019 with a Family Mart bottle of Shaoxing wine in a Taipei hotel room watching the horrific Yuen Long attack unfold on my tab while Transformers Wreck Hong Kong played on the TV.
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12 Responses to The slow death of Apple Daily (cont’d)

  1. Mary Melville says:

    https://hk.appledaily.com/breaking/20210619/NKFZMAHLIZFIXBDDLPF2CDGOYI/
    Watsons water bottle with “Hong Kong is so beautiful” packaging removed because of slogans
    Translation is
    “Neither mountains high, nor troughs low can deter the pursuit of dreams’
    “No matter if we scatter, our roots are here”
    ‘There’s a spirit called persistence”
    “Lift your head and eventually you’ll see a clear sky”
    Collectors items, some still available in the mom and pop stores.

  2. Quentin Quarantino says:

    Now that we have arrived at the stage where websites are banned and blocked, how long before someone at the Gestapo Hotel in Tin Hau points his little red pencil at the Big Lychee blog?

    Are contingency plans in place, Hemlock?

  3. Mark Bradley says:

    “The CCP celebrates its 100th anniversary by silencing anyone who doesn’t bow to it.”

    They really are charming aren’t they? And they wonder why they are viewed as thin skinned unsophisticated knuckling dragging low brow thugs that make people like John Gotti look like community leaders instead of being respected on the world stage. You don’t gain respect by being feared, but seems like CCP is not capable of understanding that since they’re so used to using fear on the mainland and confuse fawning, bootlicking, and sycophancy with respect.

  4. Mark Bradley says:

    “And the key question: will a Hong Kong court now seriously declare that writing/publishing an article urging an overseas government to impose sanctions on local/Mainland officials threatens national security?”

    Yes because it’ll be another NSL clown on the bench. These sellouts would feel right at home in 1930s Fascist Italy where Judges were the least persecuted group since they immediately rolled over.

  5. dimuendo says:

    Mark Bradley, judge comment.

    Our hugely /esteemed former CJ the Rt Hon Geoffrey Ma set the tone and path in his very last judgement, 31 Dec 2020, when he revoked Jimmy Lai’s bail in finding the prosecution had an arguable case.

    In so doing he prejudged the CFA judgement and sent a strong signal. He gave up his apparent British citizenship to be appointed Chief Justice, but has apparently retired to UK to act as an arbitrator and mediator.

  6. Joe Blow says:

    This reminds me of Judge Roland Freisler, the notorious Nazi judge who was in charge of the trials against the conspirators who had tried to kill Hitler. One of them was the son of Max Planck, one of Germany’s greatest scientists. Roland was a typical Nazi beast. One day, in February of ’45, during his lunch break, he went back to the court house to retrieve a file. Just at that moment a bomb fell on the court complex, killing Roland. Roland was so hated that even his own relatives did not want to bury him

    Maybe there is a lesson here for our very own NIL judges.

  7. Penny says:

    “These sellouts would feel right at home in 1930s Fascist Italy…”
    Likewise in Chile under Pinochet.

  8. Kwun Tong Bypass says:

    It will be interesting to see to whom Jack Ma will be ordered to sell the SCMP to.

  9. odaiwai says:

    dimuendo: “He gave up his apparent British citizenship to be appointed Chief Justice, but has apparently retired to UK to act as an arbitrator and mediator.”

    I don’t think any of those who renounced their UK passports for Chinese Nationality had any intention of it being for life, or did it for any reason other than sucking up to China.

    There was a podcast interview with Mike Rowse (https://hohohk.podbean.com/e/the-man-who-brought-disneyland-to-hong-kong-with-mike-mickey-rowse/), who has likewise renounced UK Citizenship for China National status. He recounts an incident where, when confronted with a UK Immigration officer of Indian ancestry who questionsed his ability to enter the UK on a Chinese Passport, Rowse claimed that, as a Englishman, he had every right to enter and stay as long as he wanted.

  10. dimuendo says:

    Odaiwai

    My point, with which you may agree, is that those who give up nationality or citizenship should not be allowed to resume it when they choose. Whether Goeoffrey Ma or Mike Rowse. You choose something else, okay, but you cannot revert when you wish. Certainly for economic migration/ refugee purposes, a la Ma.

    As for Rowse I may be wrong but I thought he claimed to be Australian (or NZ). I hope he was refused entry to the UK.

  11. Stanley Lieber says:

    @dimuendo

    Last week I saw Geoff Ma playing golf at Shek O.

  12. dimuendo says:

    Stanley Lieber

    Then either he is coming and going, which is unlikely unles he is getting special treatment as to Covid quarantine, which to be fair I doubt, or there is misinformation out there, including wikipedia.

    But I stand by my comments, save am willing to be corrected as to the last half sentence of the first one(to Mark Bradley’s judge comment).

    And the news today as to the likely imminent demise of Apple Daily is not good.

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