The most important China-critical newspaper in Hong Kong, Apple Daily, was again put under pressure by the police on Thursday.

She arrested five senior executives at the newspaper, including editor-in-chief Ryan Law.

During a raid on Apple Daily editorial offices, police officers confiscated computers, cell phones and journalistic records.

In addition, the order was issued to freeze assets of the media company worth 18 million Hong Kong dollars (about two million euros).

About 500 police officers were involved in the action.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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    According to the police, around 30 opinion articles in which the newspaper's authors spoke out in favor of foreign sanctions against China served as the basis for the arrests and the search warrant.

    "We have very strong evidence that the questionable articles play a very important role in a conspiracy that foreign states and institutions are supplying ammunition to sanctions against Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China," said the police chief of national security , Steve Li.

    Journalists' Association is not intimidated

    According to him, some of the articles were published as early as 2019.

    With this he indicated that the so-called national security law could also be applied retrospectively.

    When it came into force in July 2020, leading Chinese officials had assured that this would not happen. 

    The arrested editors and members of the management, including the publishing director, are accused of "conspiracy with external forces".

    According to the “Security Act”, this is imprisonment for at least three years, in particularly serious cases even life imprisonment.

    The five people have not yet been charged.

    Nevertheless, Hong Kong's Security Minister John Lee has already declared contacts or expressions of solidarity with the arrested persons to be potentially punishable.

    “If you side with these people, you will pay a heavy price.

    Cut off all ties with these people or you will very much regret it, ”Lee said at a press conference.

    He accused those arrested of using "news as a weapon" to endanger national security.

    Lee also threatened other media outlets with "serious action" if they believed they could use their coverage as a shield against prosecution.

    The Hong Kong Journalists' Association was not intimidated by this.

    Association chairman Chris Yeung said the police action shows "that the national security law is being used as a weapon against certain media."

    Yeung fears that the seizure of journalistic material will undermine the protection of sources and prevent potential information providers from reaching out to the media. 

    Apple Daily founder and owner Jimmy Lai has been in jail since December 2020.

    Several proceedings are pending against him.

    Most recently, he was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

    His newspaper continued to publish.

    From his cell several months ago, Lai called on the staff to "steadfastly" continue their work. They defied the growing demands of Beijing-loyal politicians to shut down the newspaper. On Thursday, the works council of the publishing company Next Media confirmed that Apple Daily would continue to appear “despite the difficult circumstances”.