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Hong Kong national security law
Hong KongPolitics

Apple Daily struggling to stay alive as staff quit in wake of national security law arrests

  • With just days to go before tabloid’s possible closure, many workers have already left but some vow to stay until final hours
  • Hong Kong leader says US condemnation of raid on company’s offices last week is attempt to ‘beautify acts’ that undermine national security

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Apple Daily could end its 26-year run in Hong Kong on Saturday. Photo: Nora Tam
Natalie Wong,Lilian ChengandChris Lau

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily has lost almost half its workforce since its top executives were arrested last week, but those remaining have vowed to carry on until Friday when management is expected to announce the tabloid’s final day. 

Employees told the Post on Tuesday many newsroom divisions had been left unattended because of the wave of resignations, after the board of directors revealed a day before the company was making a last-ditch appeal to the Security Bureau for the release of assets frozen under the national security law.

Among the teams that have packed up and gone were those managing online financial news, English-language coverage, breaking news and video content branded as Apple Action News.

Sections still able to maintain basic operations included local news, courts, features, entertainment, sports and photography, while the roughly 20 employees remaining in the print division were committed to keeping the presses rolling until the final edition of the 26-year-old tabloid on Saturday, they said.

Police officers arrested five of the tabloid’s top executives on Thursday under the national security law. Editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong and publisher Cheung Kim-hung were charged the next day with conspiring to collude with foreign forces and remanded in custody, while the other three were released on bail without charge.

Authorities said more than 30 published articles calling for foreign sanctions were evidence of conspiracy to collude with external forces – an offence under the security law, which also targets acts of secession, subversion of state power and terrorism.

Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is in jail serving terms on unrelated convictions and already faces multiple charges tied to the security law.
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