21 Countries Demand China End Attack on Press Freedom in Hong Kong

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The Epoch Times

The United States and 20 other countries have issued a joint statement expressing concern about the current and future outlook of press freedom in Hong Kong.

The group of 21 governmentsโ€”part of the โ€œMedia Freedom Coalitionโ€ that was established in 2019 to advocate for press freedom and the safety of journalistsโ€”pointed to the recent forced closure of Apple Daily, a major pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, and the arrest of the paperโ€™s staff.

โ€œThe use of the National Security Law to suppress journalism is a serious and negative step which undermines Hong Kongโ€™s high degree of autonomy and the rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong, as provided for in the Hong Kong Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration,โ€ the July 10 statement read.

Freedoms in the financial hub have been in disappearing at an alarming rate after the Chinese Communist Partyโ€™s (CCP) imposition of its draconian national security law last summer. Since then, dozens of the cityโ€™s pro-democracy opposition leaders are now either facing prosecution or sitting in jail, if they havenโ€™t already fled overseas as political refugees.

Recently, Amnesty International stated that the law โ€œhas put Hong Kong on a rapid path to becoming a police state and created a human rights emergency for the people living there.โ€ Reporters Without Borders called on democracies around the world โ€œto put more pressure on the Chinese regime to end its authoritarian policies and ensure the restoration of press freedomโ€ in Hong Kong.

On June 17, 500 police officers raided Apple Dailyโ€™s newsroom and froze millions of the paperโ€™s assets, effectively putting the paper out of business. The paper printed its final edition on June 24 and has since closed down its social media accounts.

Two of the paperโ€™s senior executivesโ€”CEO Cheung Kim-hung and Chief Editor Ryan Lawโ€”have been chargedย on collusion charges under theย national security law. Theyโ€™re now in detention after being denied bail last month. Their next court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 13.

Two Apple Daily writers, Fung Wai-kong and Yeung Ching-kee, were arrested in late June. Fung has since been released on bail.

Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai has been serving prison terms on charges related to his support of Hong Kongโ€™s mass protests two years ago, amid the height of the anti-CCP, pro-democracy movement that started in June 2019. Lai is also awaiting trial for a separate โ€œnational securityโ€ case.

BYย FRANK FANG

Read Full Article on TheEpochTimes.com

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