Hong Kong: premises searched and leaders arrested, the Stand News site will close
Police officers guarding in front of the building that houses the Stand News office in Hong Kong, this Wednesday, December 29.
The independent site was raided this morning.
AP - Vincent Yu
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
It is a new attack on the freedom of the press which took place this Wednesday, December 29 in Hong Kong.
This morning, at dawn, the premises of Stand News, one of the last independent media in the special administrative region, were raided.
At least six of its leaders or former leaders were arrested at their homes.
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With our correspondent in Hong Kong
,
Florence de Changy
The Hong Kong news site Stand News will close after a series of searches and arrests that took place this Wednesday, December 29, he announced
on his Facebook page
.
He announced the resignation of its editor-in-chief Patrick Lam and the dismissal of all staff.
The site will no longer be updated and appears to be going offline soon.
A total of 200 uniformed and plainclothes police officers took part in this morning's operation targeting this independent online news site, a site that had somehow filled the void created in the local press by the closure of the Grand opposition newspaper,
the
Apple Daily
, last June, but with much less resources.
Around 100 police arrived on site with dozens of large plastic boxes with the aim of seizing computers and documents, employees already in the offices were ordered to leave the area and the building was cordoned off.
Accused of conspiracy
At the same time at least seven people were arrested at their homes, including: the famous pop star and pro democracy activist, singer Denise Ho, who had resigned from the board of directors of Stand News last month and the great lawyer and former MP Margaret Ng.
Stand News' current interim editor-in-chief Patrick Lam, as well as Chung Pui-kuen, the former editor-in-chief who recently resigned from his post were also arrested.
All are accused of "
conspiracy to produce and distribute seditious material
", under an old colonial law dating from 1937.
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Hong Kong
Freedom of press
China