[Please pray for ten arrested freedom-loving Hongkonger]
Soon after Beijing has disqualified pro-democracy runners and cancelled the city’s legislative election, media newsrooms become China’s new target. Today, one month after the national security law has been put in place, ten Hongkongers were arrested, with the city’s pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai under the national security law.
My former colleague Agnes Chow was also arrested for violating the new security law, even though she has quitted Demosistō and her twitter account has stopped operating before the enactment of the law. Clearly, it proves that the national security law is retrospective.
Today hundreds of police officers raided Apple Daily’s newsrooms, rifling through reporters’ desks and seizing the company’s computers and files. While Apply Daily is one of the remaining critical voices in the city, Beijing’s move attempts to send a chilling warning to the city’s critical reporters.
The arrest is just one of Beijing’s attack on our press freedom. Before the national security law has been put in place, a new national security unit has already been set up in the immigration department to vet foreign correspondents’ visa applications and renewals. Today is also the first time that police imposed a new restrictive measure on reporters and blocked media coverage from the scenes, with international media outlets such as Reuters, AFP and AP barred from covering the raid. From now on, reporters can only cover the news with the police permission, which is clearly a deadly blow to the city’s press freedom.
For a long time, Hong Kong has remained as the last bastion of press freedom on China’s soil, but today’s arrest preludes a new dark era of media censorship. Once the city’s free flow of information faces unprecedented political pressure, it is worrying that this international financial hub can no longer be open and free.
Worse still, it seems that the chance of bail is slim under the national security law, not to mention the high possibility of being extradited to China’s secret courts and black prisons. Today is a painful day for every freedom-loving Hongkonger in the city.
However, even though the darkest night has fallen upon us, with news coverage becoming the new Orwellian thoughtcrime, Hongkongers will not surrender. Now it is not just a fight for democracy and liberty, but also a battle between truth and lies.
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