Hong Kong residents are trying to get hold of the latest edition of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily on Thursday. He disappears after 26 years and says in a farewell message that he is a “victim of tyranny”.
Hundreds of people lined up early in the morning in the Mong Kok district to get a copy. They sometimes chanted, “Apple Daily, we’ll see each other again”. The paper sold out in minutes in some places.
The popular tabloid had to close its doors after a confrontation with authorities. They accuse Apple Daily of having spoken out in reporting in favour of sanctions against China. That would be punishable under the controversial new security law introduced by Beijing in the metropolis.
Authorities arrested top newspaper employees last week and had bank accounts frozen. “It’s very shocking,” said a 30-year-old woman who stood in line to buy a copy. “They can dismantle a publicly traded company in two weeks with this security law.”
The newspaper will no longer be published in Hong Kong after Thursday, and the website was also taken off the air. “Apple Daily is dead,” the deputy editor wrote to readers.
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