A Hong Kong on-line information web site says it will stop operations in gentle of deteriorating press freedoms, days after police raided and arrested seven individuals for sedition at a separate pro-democracy information outlet
HONG KONG — A Hong Kong on-line information web site mentioned Sunday that it will stop operations in gentle of deteriorating press freedoms, days after police raided and arrested seven individuals for sedition at a separate pro-democracy information outlet.
Citizen Information introduced its determination in a Fb publish Sunday. It mentioned it will cease updating its web site on Jan. 4, and it will be shuttered after that.
“Now we have at all times cherished this land, however at current, we’re helpless as we aren’t solely going through wind and rain, however tornadoes and big waves,” it mentioned in an announcement.
“Now we have by no means forgotten our authentic intentions, however it’s a pity that the speedy modifications in society previously two years and the deterioration of the media surroundings have prevented us from reaching our beliefs with out fear.”
Citizen Information is the third information outlet to shut in current months, following pro-democracy newspaper Apple Day by day and on-line web site Stand Information. Authorities have moved to silent dissent within the semi-autonomous metropolis, as soon as often called a hub for vibrant media shops, after Beijing applied a sweeping nationwide safety legislation following large pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The approaching closure of Citizen Information got here days after authorities raided Stand Information and arrested seven individuals — together with editors and former board members — for allegedly conspiring to publish seditious materials. Stand Information introduced on the identical day that it will stop to function.
Two of Stand Information’ former editors had been later formally charged with sedition.
In December, the opposition was shut out from elections underneath a brand new legislation that places all candidates to a loyalty take a look at, and monuments commemorating the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Sq. crackdown in Beijing had been taken down.
The U.S. and different Western authorities have condemned diminishing press and civil freedoms that Beijing promised to uphold for 50 years following Hong Kong’s 1997 handover from Britain.
Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam final week defended the raid on Stand Information, telling reporters that “inciting different individuals … couldn’t be condoned underneath the guise of stories reporting.”