Apple Daily announced the June 24 edition would be the last, and it will not update the website from midnight of June 23. Nearly all the top leadership of the publication is in jail.
Pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily announced the June 24 edition of the paper would be its last print edition. It also announced it would not be updating its website from June 23 night onwards.
In a massive crackdown, Chinese authorities arrested all the top leadership at the paper and put them in jail.
The authorities seized all of its assets and closed its bank accounts on June 22.
On June 17, two top executives and three senior editors were arrested. Apple Daily Editor-in-Chief Ryan Law and parent company, Next Digital, CEO Cheung Kim-hung were charged with criminal conspiracy charges.
The newspaper founder, Jimmy Lai, is already serving a 20-month sentence and faces life-term in other cases. He founded the paper in 1995.
Since the new national security law that was passed last year, the crackdown on media outlets has increased dramatically in Hong Kong.
RTHK, another media outlet, is being chased by the security authorities for overhauling. RTHK has been pro democracy too.
In 2019, when there were massive democracy protests in Hong Kong, Apple Daily had given the protests prominent coverage.
The 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests inspired founder Jimmy Lai, a business tycoon who earned money in the clothing business and founded his media company in 1995.
In many interviews since China took control of Hong Kong in 1997, Lai had expressed his fear about closing his media companies because of the Chinese crackdown.
The Communist Party of China has always felt threatened by Apple Daily.
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