Hong Kong tabloid Apple Daily ceases operations after top executives arrested, assets frozen

Hongkongers bought their last edition of the Apple Daily on June 24, 2021. The tabloid folded operations after its editor-in-chief, publisher and three other executives were detained on June 17 under the national security law, and its assets were frozen, leaving it unable to pay its staff's salaries. The decision to close was made by the board of directors of Next Digital, the 26-year-old tabloid’s parent company, just hours after Hong Kong’s national security police detained Apple Daily’s lead editorial writer. Yeung Ching-kee, who wrote under the pseudonym “Li Ping” was held on suspicion of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, the latest such arrest under the Beijing-imposed legislation. Critics say the arrests and the paper's closure dealt a blow to press freedom in Hong Kong, but the city's leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, insisted it was not a crackdown on the media.