cleared from the deck, so to speak, there are some smaller online platforms that might be next. with that said, that s a negative side of things, but the positive side is that there has been a lot of saluting of the people, of the journalists at the apple daily, as well as pride in its founder, jimmy lai. now, in prison and could be in prison for the rest of his life. everyone here who has been a supporter of the pro democracy movement has looked up tojimmy lai as well as apple daily to try to be their voice when they could not speak up or when they became fearful of the government trying to target them over the past year or so. apple daily was one of hong kong s biggest newspapers with a strong circulation, around 80,000 copies a day. as as business it was solid too financial records at the end of march showed it had more than 500 million hong kong dollars cash in the bank, that s around 70 million us. it s clear apple daily would, have continued, had it and its employees staff
police say they are suspected of colluding with foreign powers to endanger national security. computers and mobile phones were seized, along with more than 2 million us dollars worth of apple daily s assets. the owner of the newspaper jimmy lai has already been put on trial over similar accusations which could carry a life term. mark simon is an advisor tojimmy lai and former executive with apple daily parent company next digital he joins us from new york. mark, what more can you tell us about what has happened today? well, we continue to get bad news. there was about 400 to 500 police officers who came into apple daily this morning. they have subsequently started to search the offices and have arrested three leading editorial editors of our group, in other words our top editorial team has now been arrested on national security charges. they are journalists, they are not executives, i want
pro democracy movement that has been underattack, but pro democracy movement that has been under attack, but they fear press freedom and journalism itself is now targeted but todayjournalists. mark simon is an advisor tojimmy lai and former executive with apple daily parent company next digital. he explained about what this move by the authorities means for the papers future. it is not really where it leaves apple daily, it is where it leaves hong kong. basically they are not happy with their ability to shut down the free press in hong kong. apple daily is the largest news media group there, it is also pro democracy. and so i guess they finally came to their wits end, and they want to finish this off before the first anniversary of the national security law. so essentially it is not up to us any more, it is up to the chinese communist party. they seem to be able to put a man in space but they can t tolerate somebody talking in the streets of hong kong about freedom and democracy. ho
the united states has described a raid by hong kong police on the pro democracy newspaper, apple daily, as politically motivated . five senior figures from the paper were arrested and are being held under security laws imposed by beijing. they include the editor in chief, ryan law. the newspaper has consistently opposed china s tightening grip on hong kong. the bbc s danny vincent is in hong kong. the police came in the early hours of the morning. 500 officers deployed to arrest five media executives, suspected of violating hong kong s new national security law. they surrounded the building. journalists inside continued live streaming the raid on their own paper. mark simon is an adviser tojimmy lai and former executive with apple daily s parent company, next media. essentially, it s not up to us any more, it s up to the chinese communist party. they seem to be able to put
five media executives, suspected of violating hong kong s new national security law. they surrounded the building. journalists inside continued live streaming the raid on their own paper. mark simon is an adviser tojimmy lai and former executive with apple daily s parent company, next media. essentially, it s not up to us any more, it s up to the chinese communist party. they seem to be able to put a man in space but they can t tolerate somebody talking on the streets of hong kong about freedom and democracy. apple daily is the only opposition newspaper left in hong kong. this is the second raid on the paper, but the first time journalists have been arrested over national security law charges. the company s assets have now been frozen. but the journalists say they will continue on for as long as they can. the police came into apple daily s newsroom and confiscated editorial material.