The Apple Daily was born on 20 June 1995. Its opening editorial was a statement of intent, setting out its stall for what was to follow. ‘We belong to Hong Kong,’’ the paper wrote. ‘We are a newspaper for Hongkongers… If Hong Kong falls, we are not going to survive.’
From this bold start, few would have predicted that the newspaper could face closure just two and a half decades later. This Friday, the board of Next Digital Limited, the parent company to Apple Daily, will decide whether to close the newspaper’s operation after suffering the full force of Beijing’s financial might.
The signs are not encouraging. The paper’s owner Jimmy Lai was arrested in April for supposed collusion with foreign entities under the China-imposed national security law. Last week, five directors of Next Digital Limited were arrested and detained — including the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Ryan Law.
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