Hong Kong leader denies there is ‘suppression’ of press freedom in city after Stand News arrests

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has hit back at critics over her government’s arrest of seven people that prompted the closure of the Stand News online portal. In a press conference on December 30, 2021, she insisted there was no media “suppression” in the city. Lam also refuted a statement from the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which urged Hong Kong to release those who had been “unjustly detained”. On December 29, city’s national security police arrested the group as it raided offices of the  Chinese-language online media outlet, accusing it of publishing seditious materials that stirred up hatred against the government.